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In the 15 years since Daniel Humm has been running Eleven Madison Park he's accumulated three Michelin stars, the highest rating from the New York Times and the 10th spot in the World's 50 best Restaraurnts list.
Humm, who recently launched a cookbook with business partner Will Guidara, opened up to the South China Morning Post about how he became one of New York's cities most renown chefs and what he hopes to leave behind.
The chef said a favorable review fromt the New York Observer back when he first started at EMP changed his cooking philosophy.
''One of the lines said, 'I wish this place would have a little more Miles Davis'. We thought, 'This is cool but what does it mean? We started researching and came up with 11 words - because Eleven Madison Park - that were most commonly used to describe his music - forward-moving, endless reinvention, cool, collaborative, spontaneous, vibrant, light and so forth. We looked at the list of words and were inspired by it,'' he told reporter Susan Jung.
Thus, in Humm's quest for change he's developed fascinating projects. In 2012, he and Guidara also opened NoMad, a more affordable and relaxed restaurant inspired by the Rolling Stones. Last fall, EMP swapped places with Grant Achatz's Alinea from Chicago.
But what is Humm really looking forward to getting from all of this? It's all about the legacy.
''I want it so that 50 years from now, people will look back at this time and say, 'Wow, those guys at Eleven Madison Park were ahead of their time, they were doing something really cool.'...If in 50 years you can look back and say that we really changed the way things are done, that's important to us.''
On April 29th, we'll find our where Eleven Madison Park will rank on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna. Fine Dining Lovers will live stream the awards ceremony so you don't miss a single moment of this grand event.
