Opinionated About Dining: Eleven Madison Park

When you spend a ridiculous amount of time, energy and money eating at restaurants, you get to know a few of the people who work in the restaurant industry. One such person I have become acquainted with over the years is Chris Russell, currently the General Manager of the Union Square Cafe. I must have met Chris close to 10 years ago when he was a Captain at Gramercy Tavern, and he handled a number of wine dinners that my friends and I had organized at the restauarnt. It was way back in the day when Tom Collicchio was doing the cooking himself, and I recall Tom bounding out of the kitchen on more than one occasion to get himself a pour of some unusual wine that we were drinking. Nowadays Chris has moved up the food chain and is a big shot, and instead of organizing the food for my table, he graciously takes my phone calls when I need a table at USC on short notice. He is the living evidence that on occassion, nice people who are dedicated to their job actually get rewarded in life.

But getting a table on short notice isn't the only benefit I got out of our acquaintance. One day an invitation to the Union Square Cafe 20th anniversary party arrived in the mail. Why yes, Mrs P and I would be honored to attend, thank you very much. It was a fun affair that included some tasty hors d'ouvres being passed around by the waitstaff. But what impressed me most about the occassion was that the guest list for the party wasn't just a who's who of the city's culinary cogniscenti, it became clear fairly quickly that most of the guests were customers who were being thanked for their support over the years. Mrs P and I settled in the bar area, but about an hour into the party Chris approached us with someone in tow and said, "Steve, I would like you to meet Richard Corraine who is a principal in the Union Square Hospitality Group." The introduction took me a bit by surprise. Up until that point in time, I didn't realize that Danny Meyer had partners who weren't the chefs that operated their restaurants. But what the hell, I can adjust to just about anything on short notice and we settled in for a chat.

Richard turned out to be an affable fellow and we chatted about various things, all restaurant related. Eventually the conversation came around to who was going to replace Kerry Heffernon as the Executive Chef at Eleven Madison Park. Heffernon, who had opened the restaurant in 1999, had recently announced that he was leaving his position to start a catering division for the company. Now for the first time since the USHG had come into existance, they were faced with replacing a chef at one of their restaurants. "I must have travelled 5,000 miles across the U.S. eating at different restaurants" Richard told me. "And after eating all of those meals I can tell you that the best young chef in the U.S. is..." Impetuous person that I am, I cut him off in order to guess who I thought it might be. But he shook his head and said "No, the best young chef is Daniel Humm at Campton Place" and then he mumbled something that made it seem as if they wanted to hire him, but there was some sort of contractual issue preventing them from doing it. Well okay, Humm was my second or third choice, but I can see how someone could make him their first choice. We ended our conversation by exchanging email addresses along with a promise to be in touch. Fast forward to a few months later when it is announced that Daniel Humm has been appointed Executive Chef at the restaurant. I email Richard to congratulate him and he writes back and says he was trying to "tell me" at the USC party. Well either he was too subtle, or I was too dense because I had no idea that he was giving me the hi sign as to who he was going to hire.

When talented and important chefs come to town it would normally be a big deal. But in this case they seemed to be downplaying things. While there were mentions of the hiring in the food press, there didn't seem to be the major PR campaign that typically accompanies this type of hiring. But when a number of months passed and I still hadn't heard anything about Daniel or the food he was serving at the restaurant, I emailed Richard wondering if I had missed being invited to the swanky opening party. He immediately wrote back and said that I hadn't missed anything, and that in fact, they were laying low and giving Daniel time to get his bearings in the Eleven Mad kitchen. But whomever said that timing is everything was onto something because he went on to say that Daniel would be unveiling his new menu the following week, and he would like me to be his guest for dinner at the restaurant so he could get my views on the menu. It was a kind invitation. I guess Richard felt bad that I didn't get the hint about who he was going to hire and he was trying to make it up to me.

I was familiar with Humm's cooking from his stint at Campton Place in San Francisco. The previous summer I had what I considered a very good meal at the restaurant and seemed clear that he had the potential to improve. Swiss born and trained at the Michelin three star restaurant Le Pont de Brent outside of Montreaux, at the age of 28, there was a proficiency to his cooking that seemed well beyond his years. But it is one thing to create a culinary sensation in San Francisco, where the dining clientele value the region's top class ingredients more than they value the culinary technique that the chefs apply to them (save for Thomas Keller and David Kinch), but with a number of world class chefs in New York kitchens, staying competitive is a much more arduous task. And from my perspective, compounding the situation was Humm's culinary style which can be as subtle as Daniel is tall (he must stand around 6' 4"). New York is an aggressive city and the diners here like bold and daring flavors, and I wondered if Humm's cuisine might be a bit soft for the tough New York audience. Well that was back in March. It didn't take long for Humm to win us over and since that first meal I have been back to Eleven Madison Park on three different occassions as a paying customer. As a result, what follows is not a review of a single meal but a compilation of the four meals I have had at the restaurant.

There are a few themes that run through Humm's cuisine. He loves starting a meal with with tomatoes or beets which he typically compliments with another vegetable. On our first visit Humm served roasted beets with a saffron poached apple dressed in a Madras curry vinaigrette. The texture of the beet and apple combination was interesting, and the combination of acidity and sugar was perfectly balanced by the savory flavors in the Madras curry sauce. Then at a dinner a few weeks later he served a tomato and carrot nage with sweet corn and tapioca that was just outstanding, this time with the creaminess of the carrot spiked by the sweetness and acidity of the tomato. Then as spring was turning to summer, Humm began pairing tomato and watermelon and on my last two visits he served us watermelon grilled with tomatoes dotted with bits of zucchini and served with basil and balsamic vinegar, and in mid-August, at the height of the tomato and watermelon season, he had dispensed with the need to grill the fruits in order to extract their sweetness and we were served a delicious and refreshing salad of heirloom tomatoes and watermelon served with basil and dressed in an almond vanilla vinaigrette.

Humm specializes in sea urchin, typically served in a state of extreme creaminess. An amuse of cauliflower mousse with sea urchin cappuccino served with a peaky toe crab salad in a martini glass was more like a course than an amuse, and was every bit as rich as it sounds. Truly a one bite dish, meaning it only took one bite to gauge the level of deliciousness. Then at another meal it was as if he split the creaminess into two by serving a "Fantasy of Eggs" which combined an organic egg served with a sea urchin cream and Osetra caviar. Then a dish of hot and cold scallop with sea urchin cream and Osetra caviar took the concept in a completely different direction. And sea urchin isn't the only super-rich ingredient that Humm has a handle on. During a recent visit he served a wonderfully creamy torchon of foie gras filled with aged Vermont maple syrup. The perfect balance of sweetness added to the super-creamy liver.

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Shellfish anyone? It is another of Humm's strengths and he approaches shellfish from various directions. Sometimes he pairs shellfish with citrus as he did in a dish of diced scallops with hearts of palm, grapefruit segments, grapefruit juice mixed with olive oil, almonds and rock salt. A butter poached langoustine along with a magnificent specimen of a diver scallop in an orange and carrot nage with carrot, ginger, coriander, pearl carrots and pearl tapioca was easily the best dish we had on the night it was served. But he can also be subtle as he demonstrated with a lovely plating of a carpaccio of wild king salmon with scallops and lobster that was dotted with a small spoon of Osetra caviar. A more traditionally styled shellfish dish was his butter poached Scottish langoustine with Sauce Corail paired with Monetegottero olive oil, and while good, was less successful than the other shellfish dishes we were served.

When I ate at Campton Place during Humm's reign there, I had found that the weakest part of his repetoire were his entrees. And on my first few visits to Eleven Mad this condition seemed to follow him to New York. We were served a number of fish courses that were somewhat ordinary, and a dish of crisp skinned suckling pig with an apple cider and saffron puree was good but not up to the quality of the other dishes at the meal. And on my next visit, a dish that was organized around what looked like a top-class lamb chop didn't appeal to me. But I guess I'm third time lucky because on my next visit our captain presented us with a gorgeous specimen of a duck that had been stuffed with a bundle of lavender. Humm's "Lavender and Honey Roast Muscovey Duck" was then whisked away and returned with the breast sliced meat sliced and served with baby carrots and a smooth carrot puree. Now this is a world class dish. I usually struggle with entrees because their reliance on huge chunks of protein usually makes it difficult for a chef to create an interesting dish. But Humm seems to have overcome that hurdle with this dish and he has created a mini-masterpiece. The dish is somewhat reminiscent of Alain Senderen's Canard Apicius, as the combination of a crust of wild honey and spices is similar to the Senderen's preparation. But as opposed to Senderen's wet spice sauce, Humm applies a thin coating of spices and honey which results in the duck having a lovely brown crust. The lavender adds a wonderfully subtle aroma and each bite is a joy. In fact the dish was so good that my friends and I now always request that it be served as a main course at the end of the tasting menu. Worthy of becoming Humm's signature dish, and I recommend that you hurry down to your nearest train station, or hop on a plane, and book a table at Eleven Mad in order to try it.

One thing that Humm hasn't managed to solve is how to combine the fine dining experience with an ambiance that is better suited for a restaurant in what we foodies typically describe as the "upper middle category". While the restaurant resides in what is one of the most beautiful rooms in the city, the room doesn't really project a fine dining experience. The USHG has tried to improve things by removing a number of tables from the dining room. But even after downsizing, the restaurant is still serving 50-75% more meals a night than a place like Per Se serves. Sometimes that can have a negative impact on your meal and the food doesn't come out of the kitchen with the same attention to detail as one might find at the four star restaurants in the city. In addition, Humm's style can still be too subtle for my taste. I love Humm's food when he decides to turn up the intensity of the flavors. And when he pairs intense flavors with rich and creamy textures, his food is on a par with what the top chefs in the world are turning out. But when he goes for a more subtle approach, while making for some good dishes, it doesn't move me to the same extent. Finally the menu seems to be changing too often. I know that Humm's cuisine is based on seasonal ingredients, but he needs to come up with a few recipes that he can serve on a year round basis. Creativity is great but is better showcased when anchored by stability. Humm should take a page from Thomas Keller's book on how to balance seasonal and signature. While it's great to serve the very best ingredients at the height of the season, the signature dishes allow diners to pass along information that is consistant from meal to meal. I suspect that this type of consistancy helps a restaurant build their clientele.

I should also add that the dining room management team at Eleven Mad has been completely revamped and the restaurant has lured long term Charlie Trotter manager Mitchell Schmerdling to run the front of the house, and John Regan has followed Daniel to the restaurant from Campton Place as wine director. Both of them have done a great job of keeping us happy, especially John who has managed to walk a tightrope on a number of occasions when he had to handle numerous bottles of wines for our dinners at the restaurant.

The new Eleven Madison Park is a welcome addition to the city. And while I'm not sure that given the size of the restaurant and the other constraints of the physical space, the restaurant will ever be able to compete with the Jean George's and Per Se's of the world in terms of serious dining, it is a vast improvement over what they are serving at places like Cafe Gray, Town, or even Gramercy Tavern. Maybe given time, Humm can figure out how to split the middle in a way that makes sense, and turn the restaurant into one that the fine dining crowd frequents when they want a slightly more casual meal than one would get at at the highest level of dining. A-

Comments

I had dinner at 11 Mad this past Sat nite. there was nothing'ho' Humm about it. what a pleasure to eat this well in this country.

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