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French laundry prices1/1/2024 ![]() ![]() While 6-courses is typically plenty, I left the meal hungry enough to stop at Milk Bar for ice cream on the way home. On my visit, the tasting menu was 6-courses with several courses giving you the option of choosing the dish. $315 is an awful lot of money but included tip so not completely out of line with European prices much less the sky-high cost of Michelin meals in the US. When I visited, Eleven Madison Park used the Tock ticketing system where you need to pre-pay for your $315 meal (including tip) at the time of reservation with no cancellations. His plating style is just as distinctive with lots of symmetry and carefully tweezed ingredients - you can tell a dish is a Humm plate just by looking at it. Humm has a distinctive cooking style, highly focused on seasonal ingredients and simple presentations with great purity of flavors. Success in New York City was fast and furious with three stars coming only five years after Humm took up residence at Eleven Madison Park. Humm then moved to California, heading up the kitchen at Campton Place in San Fransisco in 2003 before moving to Eleven Madison Park in 2007. After leaving Le Pont De Brent, Humm earned himself a star at only 25 years of age while running the kitchen at Gasthaus Zum Gupf. While Humm has been working at kitchens in the US since 2003, he originally hails from Switzerland where got his start at the then three-star Le Pont de Brent. The restaurant is even going through a third transition in 2021, reopening after a long COVID-induced closure with an entirely vegan menu and yet another new dining room.Ĭhef and owner (after purchasing the restaurant from Danny Meyer of Shake Shack fame) at Eleven Madison Park is Daniel Humm. Despite the success, the team behind Eleven Madison Park have never been ones to stay still, taking the restaurant through several iterations including transforming the original concept that earned it three stars in 2012 to the minimalist, seasonal approach I saw in 2018 which included a completely refurbished dining room. Value: 10/20 Eleven Madison Park & Daniel Humm BackgroundĪlong with the French Laundry, Eleven Madison Park is arguably the US restaurant with the most international acclaim, reaching #1 on the Worlds 50 Best list and earning three Michelin stars. ![]() Price I Paid: $315 for tasting menu w/tip Leaving the restaurant, my wallet $400 lighter and my stomach moderately full, my overwhelming thought was everything was…fine. ![]() The technique was good and the ingredients impeccable but the meal left me wanting, both with individual courses and in totality. Outside of his now-signature caviar cheesecake, the food was a repetitive parade in minimalism and ingredients. I felt the same way about my meal at Eleven Madison Park as I do about the Carnival parade in Dusseldorf. By hour two, you are mostly left wondering why you are still sitting there, watching “new” float after “new” float that are almost identical to the ones that came before it. There are a few funny political floats and almost all of them hurl candy at the crowd. The part of Germany I live in celebrates Carnival in March with a long parade featuring a nearly endless amount of floats to the point where it takes almost 4 hours. While Humm’s style was consistently and accurately represented throughout the meal, it didn’t resonate with me. Every dish was in sync with the season, featuring some of spring’s finest seasonal ingredients to an almost painful degree - do I really need asparagus in 50% of my courses? The plating was uniformly stunning, showing off an incredible amount of precision. The food on the plate was then a complete juxtaposition from the theatrical presentations, carefully edited and starkly minimal. The presentations involved some pomp and circumstance - think a tableside grill or a cart rolled to your table for some finishing flourishes. Verdict: Based on my meal at Eleven Madison Park, it was clear Daniel Humm has a distinct style of cooking. The menu was heavily influenced by the seasons but perhaps too much so - many ingredients were repeated multiple times during the meal All that negative space on the plate is partly due to the fact that the food is very minimalistic - there are just not that many components from the dishes +Beautiful plating style with very precisely presented dishes and lots of negative space Awards: Three Michelin Stars, #1 Worlds 50 best (2017) ![]()
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