Exclusive Update: The Chef Who Shocked the Culinary World and Why He’s Changing Course Again—Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park
Guy Raz sits down with Daniel Humm, chef and owner of Eleven Madison Park, for an exclusive update on his landmark 2021 decision to make the world-famous restaurant 100% plant-based. Four years after that announcement upended fine dining, earning EMP its three Michelin stars as the first purely plant-based restaurant to achieve that distinction, Humm reveals why he is now reintroducing fish, shellfish, and his iconic honey-glazed duck. He explains the creative, cultural, and economic forces behind the shift, and why the restaurant remains fundamentally plant-based at heart.
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Episode Recap
When Daniel Humm announced in 2021 that Eleven Madison Park would become the world's first three-Michelin-starred purely plant-based restaurant, the response was immediate and intense. Many in the industry called it impossible. A few years on, EMP proved the naysayers wrong — but the victory came at a cost that few outside the kitchen saw.
The Hidden Economics of Plant-Based Fine Dining
Running a fully plant-based fine dining restaurant in Manhattan turned out to be far more expensive than expected. Labor costs rose roughly 20% — more cooks were needed to coax luxury experiences out of carrots and onions. Wine sales dropped. Private events, a vital revenue stream, became harder to sell without a signature roast. The math of serving 100 people a night in one of the most expensive cities in the world worked — but only barely.
When a Cattle Rancher Changed the Conversation
The most powerful feedback didn't come from critics. It came from a Texas cattle rancher who wrote Humm a letter after dining at EMP for his 40th birthday. His wife had questioned the choice. But as the meal progressed, he found himself having one of the best meals of his life. That exchange, Humm says, was the moment EMP stopped being a headline and started being a conversation.
The Michelin Moment — and Its Limits
When EMP retained its three Michelin stars in 2022 as the first ever purely plant-based restaurant to do so, Humm described it as feeling like "walking on water." Yet behind the celebration, the pressures were mounting. Fine dining rewards repetition and consistency. EMP had both — but the economics kept tightening, and the menu kept some potential guests at the door.
Choosing Hospitality Over Ideology
The decision to reintroduce a small number of animal products — fish, shellfish, and the legendary honey-glazed duck — was not an admission of failure. It was a recalibration. Humm studied the Mediterranean diet and found an ancient model: mostly plants, with small amounts of meat and fish. He wants EMP to be a restaurant that everyone can enter, not one that only the committed can stomach. The plant-based foundation remains. The language of cooking that EMP invented stays. What changes is who can sit at the table.
Key Takeaways
- 1Creative constraints can become competitive advantages: Daniel Humm's forced shift to plant-based cooking didn't limit EMP — it produced a new culinary language that the restaurant still owns and no competitor can replicate.
- 2When you reach your stated goal, the real work begins: EMP earned its three Michelin stars as a purely plant-based restaurant, but Humm realized that hitting the summit didn't answer the next question — how do you keep a restaurant alive and welcoming when the model you built excludes a large part of your potential audience?
- 3The cost of a purpose-driven pivot is almost always underestimated: EMP's labor costs rose 20%, wine sales fell, and private event bookings dropped. Purpose and profitability don't automatically align — they require active management.
- 4Influence at the highest level works like a runway show: Like a Paris fashion show that trickles down to Main Street, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant shapes what diners expect everywhere. EMP's plant-based experiment mattered far beyond its 100 seats.
