“If it’s not Kobe “If it’s not Kobe beef or foie gras, what is luxury? Maybe the new luxury ingredient is time” Humm’s Milk and Honey dessert – a favourite at his London restaurant, Davies and Brook and one grocery store, where the vegetable aisle is the size of the corner we’re sitting in. There’s an Amazon plant right next door, and they don’t even deliver to Queensbridge. That’s how messed up it is. Things just have to change.” One thing that has not changed is the price of a meal at Eleven Madison – 5, despite Humm eschewing duck, lobster and foie gras – but every meal now includes another five meals for food-insecure New Yorkers, all prepared in the same kitchen. How, though, can he create the same complexity and depth of flavour, the hallmarks of the classic French cuisine in which he was schooled, without using any stocks or dairy products? “To start with, that was scary. But I thought about all the go-to products that we use in a lot of recipes – fish sauce, milk, butter – and created a new pantry. We grow our own koji [fermented rice], for instance: I’m not saying it tastes like chicken stock, but it serves the same purpose.” Humm refuses to talk about politics. “That’s not my language. My language is food. Food is at the centre of so many issues: the way we farm, the way we eat, global warming, but I’m not an expert on those things. I know what I can do, and I know I have a platform that can make a difference.” At Eleven Madison Park, Humm’s new menu is a revolution; at Davies and Brook, as Humm admits, it is more about evolution. Dry-aged duck and roasted chicken are still on the menu, but so is a dish Humm developed at Eleven Madison – “the mother ship” – featuring broken rice, a cheap grain not usually associated with high-end dining. “Actually, I’m proud of serving it in a restaurant of this calibre, elevating a humble ingredient with the craft of cooking.” “If it’s not Kobe beef or foie gras, what is luxury? Maybe the new luxury ingredient is time: our version of ‘fish sauce’, for instance, which is fermented from several different mushrooms: we made it a year ago and only now is it starting to taste good. To me, that’s luxury. Only we have it, and you have to come here to eat it.” Eleven Madison Park is, as it has been for years, fully booked, but Humm knows the battle to convince his well-heeled diners and sceptical critics is only just beginning. And he seems ready for it. “At the beginning of lockdown, I had to get to a place where I was comfortable with the idea that I might lose everything, and it was so liberating, because then you realise that you have nothing more to lose and what really matters is inside of you, and you can create it again. Besides, the world doesn’t need another butter-poached lobster.” elevenmadisonpark.com; claridges.co.uk ¬ PHOTOS © CLARIDGE’S 66 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
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