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On this day in vegan history · May 3, 2021

Eleven Madison Park Drops Meat

The most decorated dining room in New York told The New York Times it was giving up meat, caviar and all, and fine dining had to decide whether to follow.

Eleven Madison Park Drops Meat
Wikimedia Commons / Daniel Hemric

The facts

NYT report
May 3, 2021, by Brett Anderson and Jenny Gross
Reopened plant-based
June 10, 2021
Michelin stars
Three, held since 2012
Address
11 Madison Avenue, Manhattan

On May 3, 2021, The New York Times reported that Eleven Madison Park, a three-Michelin-star restaurant at 11 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, would reopen from its pandemic closure with an entirely plant-based menu. Chef Daniel Humm said part of the reasoning was practical: ingredients like caviar were increasingly farm-raised rather than wild-caught, and he wanted to rebuild the menu around something he believed in more. The restaurant reopened to diners on June 10, 2021, with no meat, fish, or dairy on the tasting menu. It was the highest-profile kitchen yet to make the switch, and it put a three-star name behind an idea most fine dining had treated as a niche request.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. The decision was a creative leap and a climate imperative.

    Daniel Humm, describing the 2021 decision, on Eleven Madison Park's website

    Source: Eleven Madison Park

  2. Americans eat an average of 285 pounds of meat every year – that's almost a pound of meat a day.

    Daniel Humm, interview with Wallpaper*, November 2023

    Source: Wallpaper*

Why it still matters

It gave plant-based fine dining a name that critics, chefs, and Michelin itself couldn't wave off as a fad, and in 2022 Eleven Madison Park became the first restaurant to hold three Michelin stars on an entirely plant-based menu.

See it in the 2013-now timeline

Sources

This history is still being written.

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