New York's famous eatery from renowned Chef Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park has become the world's first 3 star plant-based restaurant after retaining its award following the change to a vegan menu.
Humm made the change last year, dropping all meat products from the menu much to the surprise of food critics around the world. Humm, who's restaurant had held three Michelin stars for 10 years already, made the switch citing the unsustainable food system when cooking meat and it came after the devastating impact that COVID had on the hospitality industry.
Eleven Madison Park was awarded its three Michelin star status once again, for an 11th consecutive year, in last week's ratings for New York City, a historic award as the first three starred restaurant with an entirely plant-based menu.
tfp director and co-founder Charles Banks commented on the news: "After the pandemic, Chef Daniel Humm commented how the COVID-19 outbreak and the eatery's forced hiatus had led him to believe that he couldn't open the same restaurant, he called his plant-based gamble a risk worth taking. Is this the beginning of a wave? We'll see, but the Eleven Madison Park team are not the only ones looking at plant-based fine dining - Dominique Crenn, the Alain Ducasse group, Alexis Gauthier (Gauthier), Rasmus Kofoed (Geranium) and Claire Vallee's restaurant ONA are a few of the boundary pushing chefs moving away from meat and turning to plant-based fine dining, demonstrating that it can be done. It's an interesting space indeed and one we expect to continue to gain traction."
Amongst a flurry of changes on New York's list of Michelin-starred venues, we saw no change at the top with all three star restaurants retaining their status with Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare, Le Bernardin, Masa and Per Se joining Eleven Madison Park in this list. There are 13 restaurants in the two star category this year, down from 14 last year. The restaurants with one star climbed from 49 to 55.
Amongst the venues to be awarded their first star are 63 Clinton, Clover Hill, Dirt Candy, Frevo, Icca, L'Abeille, Mari, Noz 17, Oiji Mi, Semma, Shion 69 Leonard Street, Torien and Yoshino.
Find out more about Eleven Madison Park here. Discover the full list of Michelin Guide restaurants here.