Almost five years after shaking up the fine dining world by going all-in on plants, Eleven Madison Park is bringing back the meat.
“I very much believed in the all-in approach, but I didn’t realize that we would exclude people,” chef Daniel Humm told The New York Times. “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.”
The celebrated Manhattan restaurant, which was No. 1 on a 2017 list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, made headlines in 2021 when Humm ditched foie gras and lobster in favor of an all plant-based menu.
At the time, Humm had just reopened the restaurant after it was shuttered for 15-months because of the COVID pandemic. He worked with the nonprofit Rethink Food, which he co-founded, to serve a million free meals to medical workers and low-income New Yorkers. He saw inequities in the global food system, and came to believe that luxury should be defined by ethical sourcing and culinary creativity rather than expensive ingredients such as foie gras or caviar.
“We couldn’t go back to doing what we did before,” he told The New York Times at the time.
He’s hoping his U-turn will attract more diners to the restaurant, for both financial reasons and as an “act of hospitality,” the newspaper reported Wednesday.
The refreshed $365 tasting menu available from Oct. 14 will still be mostly plant-based, offering seven to nine courses, but guests will now be able to substitute select dishes with meat or seafood. Diners seeking a fully vegan experience will still have that option.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Humm for comment.
In June 2021, Eleven Madison Park became the first restaurant with an entirely vegan menu to retain the three Michelin stars it had been awarded in 2012. But it was savaged by some critics including Pete Wells, then The Times’ restaurant critic, who said certain dishes came across as obvious substitutions for meat or fish.
He wrote: “Some are so obviously standing in for meat or fish that you almost feel sorry for them.”
The restaurant has struggled with securing private event bookings, and wine sales have also gone down, said Humm. “It’s hard to get 30 people for a corporate dinner to come to a plant-based restaurant,” he said.
The turning point came during a research trip to Greece this year, where Humm observed a goat slaughter in the mountains. He described the moment as “very moving” and said it reinforced his belief in respect for food and reducing waste. By July, he decided to add meat back to the menu.
“To me, that is the most contemporary version of a restaurant,” he said. “We offer a choice, but where our foundation continues to be plant-based.”
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