This thinking is innately linked to Humm’s growing emphasis on plant-based eating and sustainable food sourcing, marked by the 2021 decision to transition Eleven Madison Park from the foie-gras-slinging kitchen it once was to an entirely vegan operation (though he doesn’t love that word, “vegan,” but more on that later). It was a move that surprised, outraged, annoyed, and certainly confused many (particularly fans of dishes like his famous lavender-infused duck).
The change was essential in his eyes. “You don’t need to be a climate expert to know that we’re fucked, and what’s on our plate is the most meaningful impact an individual can make,” says Humm. “I wanted to do the right thing, for sure—but also, if my job is to find the best ingredients, those ingredients are no longer animal products.”
Even if it has taken him a moment to reach this point, Humm has of late been spreading his gospel to anyone who will listen. If you’ve dined at Eleven Madison Park since the plant-based shift, tucking into dishes like Japanese cypress seeds arranged like roe, and your table has received a visit from the chef, you may know the spiel. When I ate there last November and the chef stopped by during dessert, the subject turned to turkey—and Humm rattled off numbers on the potential carbon reduction if every American household decided to forego their Thanksgiving birds for the year. (Shortly after, I texted my friends suggesting a root vegetable tian as our main for the holiday.)
Humm doesn’t like to sound preachy, he tells me, as we shrug on light jackets and head out to the damp fields of Magic Farms alongside Kobielski. He doesn’t expect everyone to become vegans (“vegans suck,” he says with a wink, before earnestly dissecting why it turns so many people off). He just wants to share information on where our food comes from, and let the facts do the rest.
Perhaps it’s this way of his, of framing planet-first eating as something special, and elegant, rather than a chore, that led UNESCO to knock on his door. “Daniel Humm is much more than one of the world’s most gifted chefs,” says UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay about his new ambassador appointment. “He is a passionate advocate for sustainable nutrition, who has staked his career on his beliefs, defying the skeptics, and proving to us all that the finest cuisine can be an ally in protecting our precious planet.”
I ask Humm how his current advocacy will evolve, or expand, in this new role. The Goodwill Ambassadorship focused on Food Systems is a first, and unique for an organization best known for its work protecting physical historical sites like the Angkor Wat and the Taj Mahal. What does that even look like?
Humm says that’s the exciting part—figuring out the details—and just a few things are certain at this stage. For one, his platform is about to get much bigger. “I always have had bigger roles outside the restaurant before,” he says. And in Eleven Madison Park’s dining room, “we touch 100 people every night.” But that’s just 100 people he can try to share his plant-based thinking with, whereas a bigger mic means a quicker dissemination of the message.
