The Vegan Experiment Is Over at Eleven Madison Park
The chef who once recast the three-Michelin-star destination as a temple to plant-based luxury will soon run dual menus. Starting on Tuesday, October 14, EMP will offer one vegan, and one with select animal proteins, which marks the return of fish and meats such as the signature honey-lavender-glazed duck.
'I have some anxiety that people are going to say, 'Oh, he's a hypocrite,' but I know that the best way to continue to champion plant-based cooking is to let everyone participate around the table,' Humm told the New York Times.
From crusade to compromise
When Daniel Humm reopened Eleven Madison Park in 2021 with a fully vegan menu, he didn't just swap butter for almond milk: he positioned it as a moral and creative crusade. He told NPR: 'I believe that if the meal is delicious, we don't need to worry about it. I think people will buy into it. I think if we want to really push the envelope, this is the place where we have to do it.'
Starting during the pandemic, EMP's kitchen engineered meringue without eggs, almond-milk ricotta, and Japanese 'land caviar' made from dried seeds. The gamble paid off — at least in accolades. In 2022, EMP became the first restaurant in the world to earn three Michelin stars for a fully vegan menu.
But Humm's all-or-nothing vegan approach wasn't universally embraced. 'This $1,000 dinner for two,' wrote former Eater critic Ryan Sutton, 'is not going to change the world. It is not a redefining of luxury, or anything close to it. Omnivores have long been seeking out accessible yet ambitious vegetarian and vegan fare, and Humm, based on a mid-August meal, doesn't yet appear to fully possess the palate, acumen, or cultural awareness to successfully manipulate vegetables or, when necessary, to let them speak for themselves.'
In addition, the switch caused some alleged internal conflicts and negative online reviews, as well as the rise of a supposed 'secret beef room,' former Times critic Pete Wells revealed in his brutal review.
The walk-back
Humm's explanation for the introduction of some seafood, duck, and perhaps chicken is this: 'While we had built something meaningful, we had also unintentionally kept people out. This is the opposite of what we believe hospitality to be.' He now says he wants to 'create an environment where everyone feels welcome around the table.'
It's a revealing sentiment: If the point of the vegan pivot was climate impact, animal welfare, and rewriting the fine-dining playbook, then this about-face makes it harder to see that original decision as anything but theater: an experiment that didn't quite fill the seats.
He also said to the Times that 'over the past year has found it increasingly harder to sustain the level of creativity and labor required. Bookings for private events, an essential stream of income, have been particularly sparse,' and wine sales were also down.
A broader empire in motion
Humm's not just tinkering with EMP's menu. Last year, he opened the also-vegan Clemente Bar, a jewel-box lounge upstairs from the restaurant's dining room, and now, he's working on a new downtown restaurant. For a chef approaching his 20th anniversary at EMP, the timing of the pivot — alongside expansion — positions the change as perhaps a strategic move to broaden the customer base and diversify the appeal of the brand. Eater has reached out about the changeover for EMP.
From crusade to choice
Humm insists the plant-based menu will remain an option, just no longer the only option. But the tonal about-face is striking: from moral urgency to menu flexibility in under half a decade. And above all, it's a reflection of these times.
Although when it comes to veganism, with restaurants like the well-funded Kernel abandoning it after a year, it may always be a Sisyphean effort.
'I admire the boldness of the move,' Ariane Daguin, the owner and CEO of D'Artagnan, told Eater in 2021. 'But deep down, I don't think it will last. Dan Barber, Charlie Trotter, Alain Ducasse … all tried and then eventually reintroduced meat and fish proteins.'
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Eleven Madison Park
Location 11 Madison Ave (at E 24th St), New York, NY 10010 External Link
Phone (212) 889-0905
Link https://www.elevenmadisonpark.com/
Frank Bruni says 'Some chefs and restaurants do better with meat than with fish, or vice versa, but that's not the case here. I'm crazy for the lavender honey-glazed duck for two, but I'm just as crazy for the restaurant's changing lobster dishes.'
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