James Beard Award-winning chef Daniel Humm opens up about the fitness and recovery routine that keeps him energized throughout his bustling workdays.
If you weren’t aware of Daniel Humm’s outstanding culinary accolades, you might think — based on his workout regimen — that the Eleven Madison Park chef and owner is a professional athlete. (For the record, he did compete as a pro cyclist before leaving the sport in his mid-20s.)
These days, the Swiss-born New Yorker runs for an hour three to four mornings each week. He practices yoga twice weekly. He sees a personal trainer four to five times each week. To give further context: He ran the Boston Marathon for the first time this year and finished it in fewer than three hours. And he’s currently training for the 2024 race taking place next April.
During those same weeks, day in and day out, Humm is at the helm of the fine dining establishment once voted The World’s Best Restaurant, which also has three Michelin stars and four stars from the New York Times.
“There is a similar consuming drive when training, and a focus on technique and execution,” the 46-year-old says. “I was able to channel and approach cooking and working in a kitchen with the same mindset that I had as a professional athlete.”
Humm’s ambitious routine might sound exhausting to the average gym-going home cook. Rest assured, his guiding ethos includes recovery. His yoga practice also helps him unwind with work, mind and body. “I find yoga to be very restorative physically and mentally, and [it] helps me to align and center myself,” he says.
It’s hard to imagine anyone being able to take on so much without a way to keep calm. Humm has not only maintained his reputation as a culinary titan over the years — which included public changes within the business and pandemic challenges — but he has also kept Eleven Madison Park abuzz and thriving after his decision to overhaul the former menu and make it plant-based in 2021. Nevermind the pressure of redefining a decades-old institution while critics curiously questioned whether customers would still pay for an expensive dining experience that did not provide meat or animal products. Spoiler alert: They have and they do.
All of that’s to say Eleven Madison Park has done what many restaurants cannot. And it's made it far enough to commemorate its 25th anniversary this year, celebrating with exclusive offerings for an entire month.
“We’ll be doing a special retrospective menu that will be an homage to the heritage and community of Eleven Madison Park with dishes from the past, present, and future that celebrate its unwavering commitment to plant-based [food] — and, more importantly, show that the journey to Eleven Madison Park’s plant-based present didn’t just happen overnight,” Humm says. “One of my favorite dishes from the past is the Carrot Tartare. This dish was conceived when we were still working with meat, and we challenged ourselves to make the best tartare possible, and the result was this dish.”
A percentage of proceeds from the 25th anniversary kick-off event, taking place on October 3, will be donated to Rethink Food. The New York City-based non-profit, which Humm co-founded, helps provide meals to food-insecure communities.
Being a chef is quite physical; it’s a young person's sport, and I have to keep up,” says Humm. “It is essential to find the right equilibrium that promotes your well-being.
With all of this going on (and more soon), Humm credits his physical fitness and predominantly plant-based diet to help him stay at the top of his game.
“Being a chef is quite physical; it’s a young person's sport, and I have to keep up,” he says. “It is essential to find the right equilibrium that promotes your well-being. I used to be solely focused on performance, but now it's very much also about longevity and health. Having energy and a clear mind is all related to what you eat. Where I am now in my life and fitness journey has left me feeling energized, enabling me to work on multiple projects and continually push my boundaries.”
And speaking of projects, Humm also has a new book, Eat More Plants, hitting shelves this October. It’s based on his pandemic-era creative journals and shares his thought process behind the decision and re-imagination to make Eleven Madison Park fully plant-based.
“It is deeply personal and something that I’ve never shared publicly before,” he says. “It's a mix of my sketches, drawings, menu outlines, scribbled-down thoughts, hopes, and fears. [It’s] a behind-the-scenes look at the start of a change that anyone taking a new path might be able to relate to.”