Three years ago at the James Beard Foundation Silver Anniversary Gala, I had the pleasure of sitting and chatting with Daniel Humm — one of the sweetest and most unpretentious chefs I’ve ever met! I found that my experience at his Eleven Madison Park restaurant fit his personality.
His fixed-price meal is an adventure, from the plain white cardboard bakery box tied with blue and white string greeting you when you sit down, to the chocolate milk-matching game you play just before departing with a bag of housemade granola. Pure experiential.
Inside that box, we found a savory twist on a sweet classic. Black and white cheese-apple filled crackers looking like mini black and whites — although none of us could discern any apple. From there the waitstaff inquired about allergies, or dislikes – as they offer only a tasting menu ($225 each, plus $155 for the non-classic wines, consisting of about 10 glasses).
From there we had the whimsical chunk of tuna speared by a large fish rib bone, served with marinated and cured cucumber; the orgasmic seared foie lobe cooked with fried thyme crumble and pickled plum; a breast portion of a roasted 
Duclair duck from the finger lakes; a poached squid salad with roasted and marinated bell peppers; artichokes topped with crunchy basil buds; and a play on the classic eggs Benedict with Osetra caviar, corn custard and hollandaise sauce over a poached quail egg with pieces of smoked ham placed between the corn kernels in a caviar tin accompanied by teeny English muffins.
One of the 13 courses was an amazing “tomato salad with basil and onion.” This wasn’t like any tomato salad you’ve ever had before unless you’d been to Eleven Madison! The kitchen starts 
with 60 kilos of tomatoes (at least according to our server) that they turn into three kilos of usable product. They push the tomatoes through a meat grinder, drain and strain it, and do it again to concentrate the pump. After seasoning, they put that concentrate into a special ring mold to form the “sections” then add back seeds and top it with mini garlic croutons and micro basil. NB – I dined the end of September when tomatoes were at their best. 
The libations to accompany each of the courses included a range of styles red, white, sparking, rose and sweet wine as well as a beer with many geographic styles and grapes focusing on the off beat. For one matching the sommelier John — whose full name I never although we asked — poured one wine into another!! Odd for sure. And another one with 100% Nebbiolo grapes, none of us liked. He replaced the Rosso di Valtellina by Arpede with a Bovio, Vinga Arborina, Barolo 2005.
Desserts included of a deconstructed cheesecake topped with pieces of 
berries, chocolate pretzels swinging from a wooden rack and a chocolate quiz. For the latter, we were given four bars of chocolate and a matching game asking us to figure out the type milk in each one: goat, cow, sheep or buffalo! What fun!
This meal was so different from the multi-course precision of the Charlie Trotter meals of the 90s. It was unpretentious, with a service staff mostly as humble as Daniel Humm himself. Some was comical from the Somm bursting out of his too small suit jacket to the course where they remove all our silverware, inviting us to eat with our hands with the Somm pouring one wine into the other. A memorable experience for sure, one worth the trouble to get the reservation.
– bonnie
Eleven Madison Park
Flatiron District
11 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
(212) 889-0905
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