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\n Illustration: Ryan Inzana\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I moved to New York, I never thought that I would have only one job,\u201d says Daniel Humm. The Switzerland-born chef arrived in 2006 to run the kitchen at Eleven Madison Park<\/a>, which he bought from Danny Meyer in 2011 and where he\u2019s been the sole owner since 2019. \u201cIt turned out to be this magical place that\u2019s bigger than me, and it has defined my whole culinary career,\u201d he says. During his time, EMP has become one of the most prominent restaurants in the world. It was global news when Humm announced in 2021 that the restaurant would serve only plant-based ingredients<\/a>, just as it was last year when he announced that meat would return<\/a> to the menu. Now, to mark his 20th anniversary there, the restaurant is staging a 20-day retrospective menu<\/a> of its greatest hits, including carrot tartare, a clambake, and celery root cooked in pig\u2019s bladder. Mostly but never fully vegetarian himself, he admits that when he dreams of meat, it\u2019s the flavors of his childhood: \u201cMy mom would make these incredible osso bucos. Those are the things that I am drawn to most.\u201d<\/p>\n Wednesday, December 31 Around 11 a.m. we stopped by Carissa\u2019s the Bakery<\/a> in East Hampton to pick up pastries. It\u2019s something of a family ritual whenever we\u2019re out there. They make incredible shakshuka. I had the pickled sourdough rye bread, toasted, with butter and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt. It\u2019s very satisfying \u2014\u00a0tangy, warm, and slightly chewy \u2014 and doesn\u2019t need anything else.<\/p>\n We kept lunch simple at the house, throwing together a few salads using greens we\u2019d picked up at the farmers\u2019 market earlier in the week. Nothing complicated. It\u2019s so magical out there because they have these operating farms, so I just take what they have from the farm that day. I added roasted root vegetables that were earthy and a little sweet. It was something nourishing to fuel us ahead of a long night of celebrating.<\/p>\n For dinner, we went to a close friend\u2019s place for a New Year\u2019s Eve house party. My wife and I got married in June, and we celebrated with a vegan dinner at Eleven Madison Park. So it felt especially meaningful to ring in the New Year surrounded by so many people who were also at the wedding, including close friends and family.<\/p>\n My friends always have incredible taste, and the dinner table reflected that through beautiful cheeses and thoughtful wines. Someone brought caviar with potato chips; they had platters of crudit\u00e9s with hummus and smoked salmon. It was lovely because it wasn\u2019t a sit-down dinner, more of a party, but not a huge party, so they just passed food. I sampled a bit of everything.<\/p>\n We contemplated \u201ccheers-ing\u201d at 11, but in the end, we stayed until midnight and got home around 1 o\u2019clock.<\/p>\n Thursday, January 1 I have a whole setup: A La Marzocco espresso machine with the little scale and everything. I make cappuccino in the morning, with regular whole milk and coffee from Devoci\u00f3n<\/a>, which we work with at the restaurant. I have that machine everywhere I go: one at the office, one at home, and one at our house in Amagansett.<\/p>\n In the morning, I always make a green juice with ingredients like celery and spinach and kale and fresh ginger. And I have a spoonful of New Zealand manuka honey. Every night I also have a shot of high-phenolic olive oil from Greece. I\u2019ve been reading about the benefits of manuka honey and high-phenolic olive oil; I\u2019ve been taking them for about four years or so, and I feel great.<\/p>\n We packed up to head back to the city, and at 1 p.m., we did the New Year\u2019s Day Polar Bear Plunge at Cooper\u2019s Beach. It was a gorgeous day with a blue sky but freezing, like 20 degrees. We jumped in the ocean among 1,000 other people. It snowed the night before, and driving home, everything was in white. It reminded me of when I was a kid in Switzerland.<\/p>\n On the drive back home to New York, we stopped to pick up a couple of loaves from She Wolf<\/a>. Back at the apartment in Flatiron, we made a late brunch: thick slices of the crusty, slightly sour bread toasted until golden; omelets with Gruy\u00e8re cheese; coffee; and fresh celery juice. The eggs were soft, while the cheese was nutty and just melted enough. Starting the year this way, by cooking at home with my wife and daughters, felt deeply peaceful.<\/p>\n When I\u2019m with my girls at home, we always try to do a pasta night. So we went to Eataly to pick up ingredients to make spaghetti pomodoro. I use a blend of tomatoes that bring different degrees of sweetness, cooked quickly with a little garlic and onion and a generous amount of olive oil. Before bed, I had my shot of olive oil. And I could feel the beginning of a cold coming on.<\/p>\n Friday, January 2 Lys\u00e9e\u2019s madeleines are a staple in our house. They are so tender and lightly crisp at the edges. We also brought home the chestnut brioche \u2014 I don\u2019t indulge in pastries all the time, so it\u2019s a treat when I do. It\u2019s filled with soft chestnut cream layered inside a moist milk brioche, finished with a delicate crumble and a whole chestnut confit on top. Rich but not heavy and gently sweet, it paired perfectly with coffee for us and big mugs of hot chocolate for the girls. And we had fresh fruit.<\/p>\n After breakfast, I stopped by Eleven Madison Park to check in on preparations for our latest menu. We\u2019re launching a 20-day retrospective menu that reflects on the last two decades of ideas and evolution. Lunch was an R&D tasting of the final dishes, a walk down memory lane of many of the highlights of my time at EMP.<\/p>\n We start the meal with a clambake, first on the menu in 2011. The clambake is a local traditional dish that\u2019s usually quite casual, but we have a more refined version, using different clams with different garnishes. Some are raw, some of them are cooked, and the whole thing comes in a custom-made pot that holds a clam velout\u00e9 in the center. The pot is surrounded by hot rocks, and we pour seaweed water over them at the table, which then creates the smell of the ocean.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also celery root cooked in pig\u2019s bladder, based on a traditional dish created by Paul Bocuse in the \u201970s that originally used chicken. When it\u2019s plated, it really looks like two white circles. There\u2019s an L.A. artist named Paul McCarthy, and when he had the dish, he said, \u201cOh my God, I feel like I\u2019m eating a painting by Robert Ryman.\u201d It was the greatest compliment I\u2019ve ever received; it was the first time in my career \u2014 after more than 30 years \u2014 I felt I did what I always tried to do, where it looked so simple but it had everything that a great dish needed.<\/p>\n We do these R&D tastings regularly. Each dish has been reworked since the previous tasting, incorporating feedback from the team and from me, refined again and again until it feels right. I gave the team a few final notes so they could make their last refinements before everything was locked in \u2014 even after all these years, that process still feels magical.<\/p>\n For dinner, the girls wanted pizza, so we went to Ceres Pizza<\/a> on Mott Street. The owners, Julian Geldmacher and Jake Serebnick, are Eleven Madison Park alums, and for me it truly is one of the greatest slices in the world. I can\u2019t order off of the menu there \u2014 they just make something. We took two home: one was with mushrooms, very simple but so delicious. And the other one was a classic with tomato and mozzarella: thin, balanced, deeply satisfying.<\/p>\n Saturday, January 3 Lunch was another working meeting. I met my co-author, Roda Ahmed, with whom I collaborated on our upcoming children\u2019s book, Daniel\u2019s Dream<\/a>. We met at abcV<\/a>; it\u2019s one of my favorite lunch spots in the city. I\u2019m always drawn to simple, well-prepared salads that feel clean but still satisfying. Lately, I\u2019ve been loving the endive and castelfranco radicchio. It\u2019s crisp, slightly bitter, and balanced with just enough richness to bring everything together.<\/p>\n For dinner, Annabelle and I stopped by Superiority Burger<\/a>. It\u2019s on the Lower East Side, and it\u2019s a fun place that plays rock and roll and punk-rock music. It\u2019s all plant based, and the food is delicious. We split a fried tofu burger and the collard-greens-and-melted-cheese sandwich. It\u2019s impossible to choose between them. We also shared the pumpkin with chili oil, the fried halloumi, and the beets with goat cheese. Everything was bold and satisfying. It was the perfect meal for such a cold night.<\/p>\n I drank a shot of olive oil before bed. I now had a full-blown cold. I think I got it from doing the Polar Bear Plunge. As a chef, that\u2019s terrible, because you can\u2019t really taste, but I still have sense memory. I never finished high school, so everything that I know is through the language of food. I have a library of tastes and smells in my head, and they immediately bring me to a profound place. So when I come up with a recipe, and I know the ingredients that are in it, I know exactly how it needs to taste.<\/p>\n Sunday, January 4
We spent the holiday week at our house in Amagansett \u2014 me; my wife, Annabelle; and my two younger daughters, Vivienne and Collette. Justine, my oldest, was in Switzerland with her boyfriend.<\/p>\n
We had a slow morning at home, easing out of the night before. Just a few mugs of coffee.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m cooking, everyone sits around the kitchen island eating snacks and cheese. I usually do the cooking \u2014 not because they don\u2019t want to help, but mostly because I feel like it\u2019s quicker and more precise when I make it. I like to have a bottle of wine open when I cook, but I\u2019m trying to do a sober January, so I haven\u2019t had a drink this year yet.<\/p>\n
I work out before breakfast. Afterward, still in a festive spirit, we started the day with pastries we picked up from Lys\u00e9e<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Breakfast was coffee at Devoci\u00f3n<\/a> with Annabelle. Most mornings, if we can manage it, this is our rhythm. We had lattes and shared a couple of pastries, lingering a bit longer than usual before work takes over.<\/p>\n
After a long week of festivities and work, Annabelle and I had a proper date over brunch at Sant Ambroeus<\/a> in the West Village. We came here a lot when we first were falling in love, and it\u2019s a very meaningful place for us. I ordered the house omelet, which is exactly what I wanted: tender eggs, simply prepared, accompanied by water and a cappuccino. Sitting there together, unhurried, is the best feeling in the world.<\/p>\n