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Here are some choice quotes from the story:
“ Despite Humm’s grand aspirations, current and former employees say he’s spent more time off-site curating his image than actually working in the kitchen. Humm is regularly seen out and about hobnobbing with power players: He met with Eric Adams during Adams’ New York City mayoral campaign in August; spoke at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in November; and sat front row at his friend Gabriela Hearst’s fashion show this past March. Even the women he dates are high profile, including the billionaire philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and his current girlfriend, Demi Moore.”
“ In the tight labor market of 2021, most New York City restaurants were forced to raise wages to try to retain talent; Eleven Madison Park stubbornly kept its starting pay at $15 an hour….
… A current employee said many employees quit to work at “lesser restaurants” that lacked Eleven Madison Park’s prestige. But at their new jobs, the person said, “they were making more money — a lot more.” One former employee said many people left for Danny Meyer’s restaurant The Modern, where starting pay was said to be about $22 an hour and Meyer had already ended his famous no-tipping policy.”
“ Three former employees said even family meals — preservice staff meals once so delicious that New York magazine wrote about the sous-vide shawarma, fresh gnocchi, and toasted coconut-cream pies at EMP’s sister restaurant The NoMad — took a beating. Overworked chefs had little time and ingredients to make meals that properly sustained workers, three people said. Meals had to be vegan to satisfy Humm, a former employee said, even though the famous chef himself eats meat. A former employee recalled eating cauliflower and beets day after day. After their shift, some employees would get Sticky’s fried chicken or a burger at McDonald’s, another former employee said.”
“ In reality, most vegetables were sourced from delivery services like Baldor instead of farms or local markets, Yerves and another former employee said. Both former employees, who quit in late 2021, said workers regularly trashed entire green boxes of produce from Magic Farms. Vegetables that weren’t the right size or that had even a slight blemish went in the garbage, along with any unused produce.”
Brutal. Always thought Humm was a jackass after a press lunch, and he was telling us how great he was. We last went to EMP pre vegetarian, and thought the food was at best adequate and not worth the tab.
+1
Was a fun time, atmosphere, wine, service was much better than the food itself. Glad to have experienced it but it wasnt cheap. Bottle of liquor at the end of the meal was a nice touch.
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Damn, that’s a pretty stern admonishment of the establishment.
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I am definitely not a big fan of Eleven Madison but the article is clearly a take down piece without any context. All of the take down pieces are the same…look at the Sqirl, Vespertine and Willows Inn article. This article could have been written about just about any restaurant. I go to The Modern regularly as it is close to my office and great for business meals. The staff changes completely every single time I go so I guess the higher pay is not helping. I have been 3x in the last few weeks and it was a completely different staff every time. ALL restaurants are going through this. I went to a 2-3 star restaurant last Thursday that was so short staffed the entire experience was a major disappointment one somm on for a room that should have 3. I went to another highly regarded Michelin starred restaurant on Sunday and again complete turnover in the staff from a meal a few months ago and no somm at all on duty. The restaurant industry is going through a very tough time, its extremely hard grueling work with low pay and most, if not all, are really struggling to figure it out.
I just think the article should have been more balanced and provided more intellectually honest context.
And what I would love to see is an article about a restaurant that is doing it right…Dame, State Bird and The Four Horsemen come to mind.
Restaurant work is incredibly gruelling work. Always has been.
Part of me likes to hope that articles like this can shed light to consumers how hard, and gruelling, restaurant work can be. Hopefully that increases consumer’s sympathy for what restaurant workers go through every time one is out enjoying their meal.
It’s hard to talk about all the issue restaurants deal with as a whole because it is both really widespread and many of the issues are specific to a particular restaurant’s situation. At some point one needs to cite concrete examples of the trials and tribulations restaurant workers go through as opposed to merely reporting about it in generic terms. A high-profile restaurants like EMP then becomes a target for that because of their standing. Though as you pointed out EMP is by far the outlier in what is happening in the restaurant industry, and there are likely more balanced approaches to reporting on the issues the restaurant is going through.
I like your idea of an article on highlighting how a restaurant does it right and the work that goes into that. Would be an awesome piece to read
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Kate Taylor
Kate is a senior correspondent at Insider on the features team. Her investigations include:Brandy Melville employees describe racism, Hitler memes, and sexual exploitation at the ‘evil’ cult teen brand
Subway cofounder Fred DeLuca ruled the company like a demigod and pursued wives of franchisees. How one man sent the world’s biggest fast-food chain into a tailspin.
Insiders reveal how former McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook went from the chain’s savior to its worst nightmare as sex-scandal accusations threaten to envelop the fast-food giant
Ms Taylor looks to be a ‘big game’ hunter. She can join forces with the hard-of-tasting twins, Ryan Sutton and Pete Wells, for her next hit piece.
I definitely agree it is good to get this out in the public and we should hold restaurants with the resources they have to a higher standard. However, I wonder if articles like this just make people think oh Daniel Humm is a horrible person and most restaurants are not like this.
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For sure.
I, like you and many others on the board, am likely much more sensitive to the plight of restaurant workers given the frequency at which I eat out and interact with restaurant staff. To many though, they may very read it and have the takeaway you described.
And Mark’s comment on Ms. Taylor’s CV certainly points to a particularly one-sided approach to storytelling.
To the kitchen the the staff, what they see is the chef mingling with customers instead of being in the kitchen. For Daniel Humm, the more customer facing interactions and promotion of the restaurant are now a bigger part of the job for him after the breakup of the partnership with Will Guidara.
Not a good look