Daniel Humm

Born in Switzerland September 1976,  Daniel Humm began working in kitchens at the age of 14. He spent his early years working in some of the finest Swiss hotels and restaurants, earning his first Michelin star at the age of 24.

In 2003, Daniel moved to the United States to become the executive chef at Campton Place in San Francisco, where he received four stars from the San Francisco Chronicle. Three years later, he moved to New York. Humm and business partner Will Guitera took on the site that has become Eleven Madison Park, from Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Square. Humm became executive chef developing their refined haute gastronomy menu delivered with wit, verve and exceptional service.

Humm has always emphasized that he is as inspired by theatre, art and architecture as by ingredients. Humm has always liked to blur the distinction between dining room and kitchen and work in harmony. The artfully plated food always has to fulfil Chef Humm’s criteria of being “beautiful, creative, intentional and delicious.”

Eleven Madison Park was voted number one in World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2017. During the summer of 2017, they carried out a massive refurbishment of the restaurant whilst temporarily relocating with a pop-up.

Since re-opening they continue to serve their $295 tasting menu (and a pared down version in the bar) with a shift to more pared-down even austere dishes that belie the many hours spent in their preparation and technique. Their iconic duck dish with honey and lavender remains and is dry-aged in the kitchen. Likewise, customers dictate the carrot tartare with peas and rye bread remains. Chef Humm explains the challenge of the more hyperminimal still produce and seasonally-led menu: “now, it’s much more about feeling — it’s harder to explain how to make something look organic and beautiful. ”

Nomad opened by Daniel Humm and Will Guidera in 2012 was an instant hit too and followed by Nomad Bar, both within the Nomad hotel in New York and serving dishes including salted baked celery root with black truffle and parmesan, scallops seared  with fennel and sea urchin sauce, suckling pig with seckel pears and treviso. They also run the restaurants within Nomad Hotels in Los Angeles.

This summer Humm and Guidera are opening their first restaurant in Europe, taking on the iconic dining space within Claridge’s with a pared down informal luxury bistro de luxe take on EMP embracing their exemplary hospitality to be called Davies & Brook. The restaurant, which will be designed by Brad Cloepfil from ‘Allied Works’ who has recently completed a redesign of ‘Eleven Madison Park’, will be headed up by Executive Chef Dmitri Magi previously chef de cuisine at ‘Eleven Madison Park’. It will is being styled “a fine dining restaurant without pretence that embraces the heritage of its location with a contemporary sensibility.”

SIGNATURE DISHES

• Clams With Fennel: minimalist salad of marinated clams and fennel with a clam mousse. labour intensive yet minimal and stunningly beautiful
• Mushroom carpaccio  with “tons of umami”: king-trumpet mushrooms cooked in seaweed and then dehydrated, with a mushroom purée and pine nuts. The different sources of umami can be subtle, but with food this minimal, you want to do a lot with a little.”
• Smoked-Sturgeon Cheesecake With Caviar  a showstopper served on the gueridon with quenelles of caviar and smoked sturgeon hollandaise and pickles
• Lobster with potato and chanterelles
• Lobster poached in mushroom butter with potato and shaved chanterelle tart
• Apple Doughnut With Cinnamon Ice Cream
• A quintessentially New York dish: deep-fried with a ragout of apples and cinnamon.