>>Female Presenter: Hi, everybody.
We are joined today by Chef Daniel Humm and
Will Guidara at Eleven Madison Park in New
York City.
Daniel is the Executive Chef of Eleven Madison
Park and owner, recent owner, as of 11/11/11,
which I think is quite fortuitous.
Chef Humm started his career at several of
Switzerland's finest hotels and restaurants,
eventually moving to San Francisco as Executive
Chef of Campton Place, where he garnered attention
for his innovative interpretation of contemporary
French cuisine.
In 2006, Chef Humm became Executive Chef of
Eleven Madison Park--where he still is--quickly
transforming the restaurant into one of the
city's top dining restaurants or destinations.
And restaurants.
Under his leadership, Eleven Madison Park
received four stars from the New York Times,
one Michelin star, and several James Beard
awards, including the James Beard Award for
Best Chef in New York City.
And Will Guidara--what's wrong with me?
Guidara.
I keep trying to say "Will Guidara."
>>Will Guidara: She's trying to make me sound
more Italian than I really am.
>>Female Presenter: I know.
He said he was gonna pretend to do the entire
interview in Italian and pretend like he didn't
speak any English 'cause I kept wanting to
call him "Will Guidara."
Will Guidara--
>>Will Guidara: Thank you.
>>Female Presenter: is from New York.
He's the General Manager of Eleven Madison
Park.
And since joining Union Square Hospitality
Group in 2001, Will has worked at some of
the group's finest establishments, including
Tabla, where I worked, too, Cafe 2, Terrace
5, and The Modern at the MoMA, and now as
General Manager of Eleven Madison Park and
co-owner.
Together, Daniel and Will are responsible
for Eleven Madison Park's magnificent art
deco dining room, which provides an idyllic
backdrop for some seriously delicious and
artful cuisine.
Please join me in welcoming to Google New
York, Will and Daniel.
>>Will Guidara: Thank you very much.
[applause]
>>Female Presenter: So, thank you so much
for coming out of your busy schedule across
town to join us.
>>Daniel Humm: No, thank you.
It's really exciting to be here.
>>Female Presenter: We're very excited to
have you.
So, Chef, can we start with you?
Tell us how you got interested in cooking.
>>Daniel Humm: You know, I started cooking
really early when I was 14.
And my mom cooked at home and she always bought
her ingredients at the farmer's market and
at farms.
And she made me help in the kitchen.
And but, I only got to do the boring stuff,
like cleaning salads and vegetables.
I never really knew at that point that--.
I didn't like it at that time.
And I never really thought that I would follow
into that direction.
But in school, I had a hard time just sitting
still.
And some of the stuff that we were taught
just didn't interest me.
And during the summers, I was working on farms
and at home, I was helping in the kitchen.
And eventually, I went and worked in a restaurant.
And I just fell in love with it and I left
school and I started cooking.
And I worked my way up.
And I knew the pressure was definitely on
because I left school, my dad was not happy,
nobody was happy.
And I knew that this is my only ticket, this
is my only chance I have.
And I just worked hard and thankfully, I love
cooking today.
And there has never been a day where I didn't
wanna come to work.
That is, I think, the greatest sign that I
choose the right profession.
>>Female Presenter: Right.
I feel the same way.
Every day.
Being a lawyer.
It's true.
I know.
Being lawyer is the same.
[laughter]
So, Will, how did you get into the restaurant
business?
>>Will Guidara: Similarly, it's what I've
done my entire life.
And a little bit different for me because
my dad was in the restaurant business as well.
So, we work pretty long hours, so my mom was
the one that didn't want me to go into the
business.
My dad was very supportive of it.
I was a soda jerk at Baskin Robbins in Westchester,
New York, when I was 14.
Which, by the way, for a winter job working
at an ice cream shop is one of the most relaxing
jobs you could ever have.
[laughter]
I make a sick mint chocolate chip milkshake,
if you're ever interested.
And then that's essentially all I've ever
done.
I worked at Tribeca Grill as a server when
I was a teenager.
My dad was running Wolfgang Puck's restaurants
in California.
He had moved to California and I was a bus
boy at Spago.
I went to Cornell to the Hotel School there.
And then, after spending some time in Spain
working as a prep cook for a little restaurant
in the north of Spain, came back and started
working for Danny Meyer.
That's when I was at--.
I say Tabla.
Tabla.
>>Female Presenter: That's right.
My people say Tabla.
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: And I was a ma?tre d' there
and worked at a few of his restaurants.
Opened all of the restaurants at the Museum
of Modern Art.
But what I never wanted to do was be in fine
dining.
That was never a part of my plan.
I always detested the idea of working in these
really stuffy, formal environments.
And fine dining for me was the antithesis
of who I was or what I wanted to represent.
But I loved working for Danny and he asked
me to go work with Daniel as Eleven Madison
Park was beginning its transformation.
>>Female Presenter: Right.
So, tell us about that.
How did the partnership come to be?
How did you guys find your way to Eleven Madison?
You came through Danny.
>>Will Guidara: Well, yeah.
So, it started with him.
I'll let you actually start the story 'cause
he was at Campton Place.
>>Daniel Humm: I was at Campton Place and
I was in the US three years at that time.
And Danny called me and he said he had dinner
at Campton Place and he loved it.
And he has this great restaurant in New York
that he wants to just make into a different
restaurant because at that time, it was known
to be a brasserie, and the food was like Cote
de Boeuf , shellfish platters, French fries.
And Danny felt like Eleven Madison Park deserved
to be a greater restaurant, a world class
restaurant.
And at that time, I didn't know who Danny
was and I did some research and I only heard
very positive things.
So, I started--.
>>Female Presenter: Just Danny for everyone
as a--.
>>Daniel Humm: Danny Meyer.
>>Female Presenter: Danny, yeah.
>>Daniel Humm: Yes.
>>Female Presenter: Danny Meyer, who--.
Go ahead.
>>Daniel Humm: Who owns, you know, who started
Union Square Cafe and then Gramercy Tavern
and now many restaurants, including Shake
Shack.
>>Will Guidara: It's the one that most people
can connect to.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: Those fries are no joke.
>>Daniel Humm: And I had a great interview
process with him because for me, as a chef
coming to New York, it's tough.
And when don't get it right, I think in the
beginning, it's very hard to recover from
it.
So, I really had to make--.
Because as a chef, all we have is reputation.
And this is like the thing that you have to
really be careful of, you know?
And it can get damaged and then everything
is down the drain.
And I've been cooking now for over 20 years,
but you really want to protect your reputation.
And coming to New York, I had to make sure
I'm gonna work for the right guy, it's the
right restaurant, it's the right time, and
so forth.
And eventually, I decided to come and not
far into it, we also needed a strong person
in the dining room.
And then, this is how we met.
Danny felt, and I think because Danny is a
lot about the culture, that is unique and
really powerful and different and he's been
a great mentor in that for me because nobody
ever has taught me that side of the business.
But he felt that it was important to bring
somebody from within his organization who
really knows the culture.
And we met briefly in meetings before and
I asked.
I said, "What about Will?"
And--.
>>Will Guidara: He pursued me.
[laughter]
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah.
And then, it was love at first sight.
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: We actually, whenever there
was a GM there and Daniel and that GM weren't
getting along.
So, whenever it's that kind of thing, you
need to meet and get to know one another in
clandestine ways.
So, we actually had, we met really, fully
for the first time right around the corner
at Crispo.
Have you guys been to Crispo?
And we gorged on pasta.
And then there's a little Dominican bar like,
three doors down from Crispo.
And we drank plenty of beers there.
And that gets me to where I was, where I didn't
want to be in fine dining, but I wanted to
grow within Danny's company.
And he was a guy that I had a lot of respect
for.
And my dad, who's always played a very significant
role in my evolution, said, "Listen, if this
is a guy you respect and they ask you to do
something, you should do it.
But put a time limit on it."
So, when I went to work with Daniel at Eleven
Madison, it was supposed to be for a year.
And we'll tell the whole story of the evolution,
but within that year, what I hated about fine
dining was that it needed to be stuffy.
It needed to be inaccessible.
It needed to be pretentious.
And I found though our youthfulness and through
the friendship that started to develop between
the two of us, that it didn't actually need
to be that way.
It was just that way because that's how it
had been before.
And within that year, we started approaching
the three Michelin star experience with a
little bit more of a sense of humor.
And we started surrounding ourselves with
people who felt the same way.
And so, at the end of the year, they came
back to me and they said, "All right.
You've put in your year.
Thank you.
It's time to move on."
And I said, "No.
No, this is just starting to feel good."
And that was in 2007, so we've come a long
way since then.
>>Female Presenter: So, talk to us about that
evolution because I remember going to Eleven
Madison Park when I first moved to New York.
And I think my law firm took us there for
some sort of dinner and it was very different
back then.
It was before you came on board.
It was much more upright, I guess.
And so, talk to us a little bit about the
evolution that you came to create with your
food and then how you came to influence that
as well in the front.
>>Will Guidara: I think in the beginning,
it's clear.
When you're trying to make a restaurant better,
there's things that you know you need to do.
You need to have less seats.
When we got there, there were 190 seats in
the restaurant and that's just too many to
do anything that's really world class.
So, we removed seats to get ahead.
We're now at 80 seats.
So, we've removed a ton of seats from the
restaurant.
And then, you need to change the way that
you train your staff.
You need to get nicer china, nicer glassware,
nicer silverware.
And there's all the obvious things.
But to Daniel's point, the thing that I think
we learned most from Danny, is the importance
of culture.
And even beyond that, the importance of language
to help define a culture.
We, at Eleven Madison Park, we have 150 people.
And now, with the new restaurant opening,
which we'll talk about soon, we have 500 people
in our company.
And that's a lot of people to get on the same
page.
And I think language is really important to
get people aligned in the spirit of our collective
endeavor and the philosophy that we're trying
to pursue.
So, the real evolution of Eleven Madison Park
started--and you'll all see a picture of him
if you bought the cookbook--with Miles Davis,
which was our first review.
We got reviewed for the first time in the
New York Observer in 2006.
And it was a far better review than we deserved
at the time.
We were not anywhere near as good as we wanted
to be.
But at the end of the review, Moira Hobson,
the reviewer at the time, said that she wished
we had a bit more Miles Davis.
And so we said, "Wow.
That's really cool."
And then we're like, "I have no idea what
that means."
[laughter]
So, we started listening to a bunch of Miles
and started reading a bunch about Miles.
And we came up with a list of 11 words.
And within that list were words like collaborative,
fresh, endless reinvention, forward-moving.
And essentially, that list of words, which
hangs in our kitchen now, along with a couple
pictures of Miles, became our mission statement
and essentially guided all of the decisions
that we made.
When you listen to Miles' music, or when you
read about Miles Davis, what you find is a
guy that was instantly successful, right?
With "Kind of Blue," he released one of the
most seminal jazz albums in the history of
jazz.
But then, rather than resting on his laurels,
rather than sitting back and enjoying the
ride, he completely changed his approach to
music.
And then less than, I think it was five or
six years later, he released "Bitches Brew,"
where he was adding for the first time ever,
electric instrumentation to jazz, which is
something that anyone who was a purist in
the art form at the time would've certainly
said was going to fail.
And it was that approach to his music that
made him what we all know him now to be.
And the other thing that he did really, really
effectively was he approached his music very
collaboratively.
When you look at some of the great jazz musicians
over time, most of them came from Miles' band.
And the reason that they went on to do such
cool things is because it was never just Miles.
It was him and his entire band developing
music together.
So, the evolution of Eleven Madison Park,
I really believe, is due to--of that list
of words--those two: endless reinvention and
collaborative.
Collaborative, starting with the two of us.
They're in restaurants, and you've seen Hell's
Kitchen or likely some of these shows, there's
this inherent tension between the people serving
the food and the people cooking it.
He's my best friend.
Definitively, we should hate each other.
We should be yelling at each other throughout
service, but what we effectively realized
was in order for work to A, be fun, in order
for us to have the capacity to do something
significant in the dining room, we needed
to be very collaborative in our approach.
It wasn't about the back of house and the
front of house.
It was about a restaurant that included a
kitchen and a dining room.
>>Female Presenter: You guys are really Bert
and Ernie up here.
>>Will Guidara: What's that?
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: It's really sweet.
It's like Bert and Ernie.
>>Will Guidara: Thank you.
>>Female Presenter: Like Sesame Street.
>>Will Guidara: That's really sweet.
This is on the internet, right?
>>Female Presenter: It's true.
Yeah, it is.
>>Will Guidara: That's good.
>>Female Presenter: Out there forever.
>>Will Guidara: Everything, like sensitivity.
>>Female Presenter: It's a good reference,
influence.
Bert and Ernie.
>>Will Guidara: It's the sweater that he's
wearing.
And then it--.
[laughter]
And then, the idea of endless reinvention,
which is the hallmark of what we've done.
In changing so much, we're able to consistently
get people to pay attention to us and identify
or acknowledge how much we're improving over
the years, which is how we went from a two-star
restaurant to a three-star restaurant to a
four-star restaurant within three years, which
has never been done.
And I have to correct one of your facts.
This year, we became a three Michelin star
restaurant.
>>Female Presenter: Sorry.
I Googled it.
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: And we became the first--.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: I Binged it, I meant.
Or something like that.
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: You Binged it.
That was the problem.
>>Female Presenter: That was the problem.
[Will Guidara and Female Presenter laugh]
>>Will Guidara: So, I mean, that's really,
at least philosophically, marks how we approached
the last few years.
>>Female Presenter: So, the book finally came
out.
So, tell us about your inspiration for the
book, apart from Miles Davis.
What else fed into--?
Why was this the right time to bring it out
and all that?
>>Daniel Humm: I think for me as a chef, I've
been collecting cookbooks all my life.
And it was always a dream to, at some point,
have a book of my own.
And the last five years at Eleven Madison
Park have been--.
We've been focusing on to get to a certain
goal and we had this vision.
And really, it took five years to get there.
Since then, our vision has become much greater
and we have new goals, but I think last year,
we really arrived at a place where we'd been
working so long for five to get there.
And so, also from the team, we had many people
who have been with us for the entire five
years.
And for many people, this has been professionally
the most important time in our time, but beyond.
Like, so many more people, it has been their
most important time as well.
And we wanted to mark that with a book because
different to art or architecture or music,
things get recorded, buildings get built,
and paintings get made.
And then, they're there forever exactly the
way they're intended to be.
And the restaurants are different.
A restaurant experience is really only lives
in your memory and in 30, 40 years, nobody
will remember and it's gone.
And I think a book is a great way for, in
our business, to really mark that time that
was so special.
I think for a lot of the employees and us,
but also for I think a lot of the guests.
And it's really great to have it.
Definitely a dream come true.
And now, it's a new chapter.
Now, we own the restaurant.
I mean, everything happened.
It was a crazy last year, the way it all happened.
I mean, we got three Michelin stars.
We became owners of the restaurant.
And we released a cookbook.
It happened within like, three weeks.
Everything.
And they were big goals.
And everything happened.
So--.
>>Will Guidara: So, now we're bored.
[laughter]
>>Daniel Humm: No.
Now, this is--.
I mean, this is also, there are recipes for
the food exactly the way we do it at the restaurant,
or we did do it at the restaurant.
And then, there's also the recipes and stories
of how we got to where we are today.
But now, we're excited.
I mean, in the kitchen I can tell you that
our goal is not to cook anything that's in
the cookbook ever again.
And--.
>>Female Presenter: That really is a commemorative
issue.
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah.
It's a special time and now we have to move
forward.
And we, in three or four years, there will
be a new book and maybe it's gonna be black
and--.
[laughter]
Everything will be different.
But that's what's so exciting.
And I think last year was a really special
year.
So, we're so fortunate to have it in a book
form and be able to share.
>>Will Guidara: The process of making the
book--.
However, I think it was a much messier experience
than I think what you see in front of you.
We had no idea what we were doing in the beginning.
And we talk about collaboration and that approach,
and the publisher and the book agents say,
"All right.
You need a writer and you need a recipe tester."
They want you to have this entire team.
And the idea of involving anyone outside the
walls of our restaurant in the production
of our book seemed completely counter intuitive
to us.
So, we said, "No, no, no.
We got this."
And we had our assistant was going to do all
the recipe testing.
And one of the cooks was gonna like, write
all the recipes.
And two weeks later, we were missing all of
our meetings and the whole thing was an absolute
disaster.
And we really had to stop and collect ourselves.
And we still did it internally, but that book
is the result of about 20 people working only
on that for an entire year because we wanted
it to be a few things.
We wanted it to be reflective of what the
restaurant is.
We wanted it to work.
Every one of those recipes was tested over
and over and over again.
And in spite of the fact that they're an absolute
reflection of his food, they're actually as
accessible as possible considering the food
that you're making.
And we wanted it to be dynamic and innovative.
And we wanted to put a lot of thought into
changing the way that a cookbook can work.
We have an email address--I mean, if you're
emailing us right now--in the beginning of
the book saying, "Hey, email us if you have
a problem with any of these recipes."
And it was--.
>>Female Presenter: You're gonna get bombarded
now when this goes on YouTube.
>>Will Guidara: cookbook at Eleven Madison
Park dot com.
But so, it was a huge, huge endeavor--much
bigger than we ever imagined.
I think if we had known how much it would've
taken to make it happen, we would've been
reticent to start.
But now that we're done, we're really happy
that we did it.
>>Female Presenter: Do you guys have a favorite
recipe from the book or from that time?
>>Daniel Humm: That's a hard question.
I mean, there's so many.
I think there is, we're doing the suckling
pig.
So, the book is organized by seasons.
And in each season, there is one ingredient
that we've done four dishes of.
And in the springtime, it's the suckling pig,
where we use the shoulder, the belly, the
rack, and the leg.
And I think these are some of my favorite
pages, spreads, in the cookbook.
And then in the summer, we have tomato four
different ways.
And in the winter, we have game.
And in the winter, we have black truffles.
>>Will Guidara: For the reasonably ambitious,
but not overly committed home cook, the chicken--I'm
not a chef.
So actually, I cooked out of this book once
because someone bought my girlfriend and I
a pasta maker and I got it and I was like,
"Yeah, let's make pasta."
And then I was like, "I have no idea how to
make pasta."
[laughter]
So, what you do when you're me is you call
the three-Michelin chef who is on your speed-dial.
And you're like, "Chef, how do I make pasta?"
>>Daniel Humm: No, what he did first, he Googled.
>>Will Guidara: I did, actually.
And then I was like, "Wait.
Hold on.
I should call Chef."
[laughter]
And he's like, "Dude, it's in the book you
just wrote."
[laughter]
So, A, if you need a pasta recipe, I can attest
from personal experience, it's a good one.
But the chicken, the roast chicken, the whole
bird in there is unbelievable.
And that's what I've cooked for my friends
now since then.
>>Female Presenter: So, that's the one thing
you can make now?
>>Will Guidara: That's the only thing that
I can--.
That and exceptional macaroni and cheese.
>>Female Presenter: That's awesome.
[laughter]
So, given that we all have apartments with
pretty small kitchens, I'm guessing a suckling
pig is not realistic for me personally to
make, apart from roast chicken, what else
do you recommend that we try in our tiny kitchens?
>>Daniel Humm: You know, there's also a few
beautiful vegetable dishes like roasted cauliflower
or a dish with eggplant.
There's some salads in there.
And you know also, use the book as using some
of the elements of the book.
We have a chapter in the back of the book
with basics, where we have a lot of different
purees for example.
And so, if you make one of these purees, you
can also make these purees with more liquid,
more water or chicken stock.
And you can make it into soup.
And I think it's just a really interesting--.
If you read the recipes, you're gonna learn
a lot in just your everyday cooking.
Just certain tips and tricks, how we do things
different.
And the dishes don't need to be done--.
You know, some of the dishes have 12 recipes
and for the most case, you can make the main
part, which is the meat or the fish or the
vegetable, and then maybe two other parts.
And you have a great dish.
But we wanted the book to be exactly what
we do at the restaurant.
And some recipes are a little crazy when you
really read through them.
I'm like, "Really?
Are there that many recipes?"
And yes, there are.
But you don't need to make them all at home.
>>Will Guidara: We had to get really good
on our book tour at defending the accessibility
of the book.
And we found two ways to most effectively
do that.
A, a lot of people challenge whether people
can do sous vide cooking in their home and
we spent enough time on airplanes to have
combed through every single page of Sky Mall.
And so, I actually took the Sky Mall magazine
with me because they now sell sous vide machines
in Sky Mall, which means it's now the everyman's
approach to cooking.
[laughter]
And when we were in LA, this 12-year old kid
came to one of our book signings and he'd
already cooked through half of the book out
of his bedroom.
So, if he can do it.
>>Female Presenter: That's a little creepy.
Pretty precocious 12-year old.
We need to get him at Google.
Maybe there's a job for him.
>>Will Guidara: We actually invited him to
our restaurant and he spent a week working
in the kitchen at Eleven Madison Park two
months later.
>>Female Presenter: That's amazing.
>>Will Guidara: It was really cool.
>>Daniel Humm: Unbelievable.
>>Female Presenter: I hope you guys videotaped
that or something.
It sounds amazing.
>>Will Guidara: We got some good pictures.
But he was so serious.
It was--.
I like, tried to joke around with him and
he's like, "I'm working, dude."
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: He's like, "Cut it, Ernie."
>>Will Guidara: He's like, "Come on."
>>Female Presenter: "I'm very busy."
Well, if you guys weren't in the food business,
what would you do?
>>Daniel Humm: I don't know.
I would be probably a professional cyclist.
>>Female Presenter: Cyclist?
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah.
>>Will Guidara: He's a ridiculous athlete.
He ran like, a two hour and 48 minute marathon.
>>Daniel Humm: I was, when I was a junior,
I was in the Swiss National Team for Mountain
Biking and I had the opportunity to go be
a professional cyclist.
But then something--.
I also wasn't--.
I felt like I always got beaten by the same
guys.
There were always a few guys that were just
a little better.
And I hated not to be the best.
And so,--.
>>Will Guidara: So, you quit.
>>Daniel Humm: I quit.
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: That's inspiring.
That's good to say.
[laughter]
>>Daniel Humm: And I love cooking and so I
cooked and tried to be the best here.
And I think I'm doing better.
>>Will Guidara: Yeah.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: What about you, Will?
>>Will Guidara: When I was a kid, I wanted
to be an astronaut.
My parents sent me to Space Camp.
And then that wasn't a reality.
I'm a musician.
I play the drums.
That was what I did for a really long time.
And I always wanted to follow my dad's footsteps
and I also always wanted to be a musician.
And at a certain point, I just decided that
I could be in the restaurant business and
still play music, but I couldn't do it the
other way around.
So, probably in the music business.
>>Female Presenter: So, what is the best meal
you guys have ever had, apart from something
you've made?
Apart from his chicken.
>>Will Guidara: Thank you.
>>Female Presenter: It sounds pretty good.
>>Will Guidara: That's hard.
I mean, I don't think it's possible to--.
It's like asking you, "What's the best website
that you've ever visited?"
Or something.
I mean, I think--
>>Female Presenter: Google dot com, obviously.
It leads me to the whole interweb.
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: No, but I think that there's
different restaurants that speak to us in
different ways.
And one of the things that we do in the book,
is we talk a lot about the different places
from which we've garnered inspiration.
I think in terms of restaurants that are doing
more or less what we're doing, and I can speak
on behalf of both of us 'cause we talk about
this a lot, but Alinea in Chicago.
Obviously, Noma is pretty exceptional.
COI in San Francisco, Daniel Patterson's restaurant
is unbelievable.
We had a really great meal at Benu, which
is Corey Lee's new restaurant in San Francisco.
But then, there's plenty of restaurants that
you get a lot inspiration from, even places
like Rella's in uptown where obviously that's
not at all what we look to do, but there's
things about that experience--the dialogue-driven
approach to order taking.
There's these little places all over the world
that do really cool things and if we--.
Our intention was to take fine dining and
change the way that it was approached a little
bit.
And so, we needed to look beyond the world
of fine dining in order to be inspired.
And so, I think it's hard to say what's the
best, but we're blessed in that we get to
travel and dine at some pretty cool places.
>>Female Presenter: So, what's next?
You guys mentioned a new project in the horizon.
Tell us about it.
>>Daniel Humm: Well, for us, this is, today
was actually a big day because 80 percent
of our kitchen staff started for our new restaurant,
which is NoMad, north of Madison Park.
It's on 28th and Broadway.
Pretty close to Eleven Madison Park.
And this is our first restaurant that we are
opening.
I mean, you've opened restaurants.
I've never opened, but it's definitely our
first owned restaurant.
So, we're really focused on that.
I mean, beyond that, it's hard to say.
Right now, we just gotta crush it with the
second one because also, the problem when
you get so much acclaim like we did the last
year, is that now people are gonna be really
watching.
And so, we have to really make sure we're
really good right out of the gate.
And we're really focused on that.
And as far as the concept of the new restaurant,
it's gonna slightly more casual compared to
Eleven Madison.
It's gonna have an a la carte menu, which
is different to Eleven Madison.
So, it's gonna be more accessible from price
point, but also more accessible from a time
commitment point.
But the food and the experience is gonna be
really creative.
We're gonna have an open hearth oven.
We're gonna bake our own bread for every table.
We're gonna have a whole roasted chicken.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: Are you making it?
You're making it?
>>Will Guidara: Sous vide chef waits for no
man.
>>Daniel Humm: We'll have a lot of dishes
with vegetables.
We'll have seafood.
We'll have meats, obviously, but vegetables
will play a big role.
But the place is like an urban playground.
I don't know if you've been to Hotel Costes
in Paris.
And it's a very fashionable hotel and it's
been trendy for the past 15 years, but it's
a really cool space.
It's designed by Jacques Garcia, which is
the same designer that we choosed for our
project.
And it has many different rooms with different
feels.
It has a library.
It has a bar.
It has a fireplace room.
It has an atrium.
It has the room where there is the open hearth
oven.
And everything has a different feel, but with
the same food.
The food and service at the Costes is not
very good.
And we really wanna change that.
We wanna have, who says that if you're more
casual and if you're cooler and there's louder
music, who says that the service can't be
just as good?
>>Female Presenter: The French.
[laughter]
>>Daniel Humm: The French.
I thought it was them.
>>Female Presenter: Just them.
>>Will Guidara: I think if, at Eleven Madison,
the idea was to take formal dining and make
it less stuffy and more fun.
The idea here is to take more casual dining
and make it more composed.
So, it is a la carte.
The food is his food, just not plated with
tweezers.
The service is our service, but if there's
50 steps of service at Eleven Madison, there's
20 steps of service at NoMad.
And music is a big part of it for us as well.
I think at Eleven Madison, music is only there
so that people don't feel a compulsion to
whisper when there's only a few tables in
the dining room.
But then, when the dining room is full at
Eleven Madison, you can't even hear the music
anymore.
At NoMad, we want people to hear the music.
We want that to actually be another ingredient
in the experience.
And that's been really fun for us to put that
together and looking at everyone from Etta
James to Johnny Cash--
>>Female Presenter: Miles Davis, I hope.
>>Will Guidara: no, to the Rolling Stones.
>>Female Presenter: No, Miles Davis?
>>Will Guidara: No, Miles Davis is Eleven
Madison Park.
>>Female Presenter: Oh, interesting.
>>Will Guidara: Actually, the musical inspiration
for the NoMad are the Rolling Stones because
the Rolling Stones, if anyone here has read
Keith Richards' book, which is a pretty cool
book to read, you know this.
Or also, just by reading everything else that's
been written about them, the Rolling Stones
come off as crazy, loud, totally chaotic,
unplanned.
But if you learn their story, they're one
of the most deliberate, intentional, contemplative
bands ever.
When they were in the UK, just developing
their music, they'd buy every single blues
album that would come out of America, learn
every song note from note, break them down,
study them, why was it done this way?
And Eleven Madison, or excuse me, The NoMad,
should be the louder, looser version of Eleven
Madison Park--the music turned up, our hair
let down a little bit.
But where every single thing is intentional
and nothing is on accident.
And we're really excited for it.
I think it's gonna be a really fun restaurant.
>>Female Presenter: It sounds amazing.
When does it open?
When can we look forward to going?
>>Will Guidara: End of March.
So we're in it right now.
>>Female Presenter: Yeah.
Thanks for stopping and taking the time out
when you're very busy.
OK.
We'll do a couple of fill-in-the-blanks because
this is what I do now--this has become my
thing--before we turn it over to Q and A.
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah.
>>Female Presenter: OK.
So, you guys just finish the sentence, whatever
comes to mind.
No pressure.
Good?
>>Will Guidara: Oui.
>>Female Presenter: Good?
Oui?
>>Will Guidara: Oui, Chef.
>>Female Presenter: Now you've turned to French?
>>Will Guidara: Yeah.
>>Female Presenter: On from Italian to French.
>>Will Guidara: That's how we communicate
in the kitchen.
Oui, Chef.
>>Female Presenter: Oui.
French food is--.
[laughter]
Will Guidara: Delicious.
>>Daniel Humm: Delicious.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: You're gonna give the
same answer for everything?
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: We're alike.
>>Daniel Humm: French food is the basic of
what we do.
>>Female Presenter: And delicious for you.
Good.
Danny Meyer is--.
>>Will Guidara: Is an incredible guy and was
my mentor for the first ten years of my career.
>>Daniel Humm: As well, Danny is a mentor
and is the first person who made me look at
running restaurants in a different way.
>>Female Presenter: Junk food is--.
>>Will Guidara: What I eat almost all the
time.
[laughter]
>>Daniel Humm: What I have to eat when I travel
sometimes.
When I'm with him.
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: I introduced Chef to every
chain restaurant that a person like him should
never go to.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: But maybe that'll be your
next concept--improving that.
>>Will Guidara: I wish I had invented In-N-Out
Burger.
I think that's one of the best things that
has ever been created.
>>Female Presenter: You were saying that to
Danny Meyer with the Shake Shack?
[laughter]
Just trying to get you in trouble.
OK, food bloggers are--.
>>Will Guidara: The best people in the world.
[laughter]
Where's the camera?
>>Daniel Humm: No, for me--
[laughter]
for me actually, when it first really started,
when the first bloggers really started having
some sort of impact on our business, I was
a little frustrated.
But now today, I'm happy because I think in
Europe, growing up, there was only Michelin.
And that was it.
And if you go up or down, that could be your
business.
If you lose a star, it could be over.
And now today, there's so many avenues and
so many publications and bloggers and so many
informations and I think it's great.
I think it's great because it makes each of
them less powerful and there are a lot of
opinions out there.
And it's fair to listen to everyone's opinion.
I think it also, we do pay attention to what
people write about us.
And we evaluate everything and we have gotten
better through it.
There's some good information.
There's some not so good, but it keeps us
on our toes and it makes us better.
So, I'm happy that they're there.
>>Will Guidara: I think if you're in this
industry, you made a choice to go into a field
where you will always be criticized.
And I think it's actually funny that people
get upset when they're criticized because
that's just the nature of what we do.
And I also, listen, the only reason you guys
are doing this sort of thing is because that
world was proliferated, right?
I mean, the success of restaurants has been
helped in a very significant way because so
many people are so passionate about it.
We, for example, have no problem with people
taking pictures in our dining room.
We ask that people don't use a flash, but
it's honoring.
And I don't understand restaurants or chefs
that are so anti that sort of thing because
bloggers are, at their core, in paying attention
to something and writing about it, you're
honoring it.
And--
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah.
>>Will Guidara: sometimes it's frustrating,
but we do pretty well, so--.
>>Female Presenter: So for now it's fun?
>>Will Guidara: Yeah.
>>Female Presenter: A food trend I like is--.
>>Daniel Humm: Going more sustainable.
>>Female Presenter: OK.
You can take a food trend I hate is--.
>>Will Guidara: People that take too much
credit for going more sustainable.
[laughter]
No, in seriousness, I hate these restaurants
where you go and you look at the menu and
they talk about all these random farms with
all the ingredients when I guarantee you they
don't even know what those farms look like
and what does that say for the other 70 percent
of the ingredients that they didn't put a
farm on?
It's like, we got all this at C-Town and we
got these three things at a farm.
[laughter]
I feel like a lot of people are taking it
too far and not doing it in as holistic a
way as they should be.
We never write the names of the farm.
>>Female Presenter: 'Cause everything's from
C-Town.
>>Will Guidara: Yes.
[laughter]
Because people, it's all great.
And I think people--.
It's a little bit contrived sometimes.
>>Female Presenter: Food trucks are--.
>>Will Guidara: I don't go to food trucks.
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah, I don't either.
>>Female Presenter: I believe him.
I don't know if I believe you.
>>Will Guidara: No, I would.
>>Daniel Humm: I think food trucks are overrated.
>>Female Presenter: And you don't go to them.
>>Will Guidara: They're everywhere.
>>Female Presenter: Reality chef competitions
are--.
>>Daniel Humm: No good.
[laughter]
>>Female Presenter: Are you gonna do one?
>>Will Guidara: Am I gonna fill in the blank?
>>Female Presenter: Yeah.
>>Will Guidara: Do I have a choice?
>>Female Presenter: You don't have to if you're
feeling pressure.
>>Will Guidara: No, I actually would honestly
answer in the same way that I answered ultimately
about bloggers.
I think that they're not so good.
They don't represent restaurants in the best
way.
But they help generate a lot of buzz for what
we do.
And as long as you can hold yourself above
that fray, I think it's been good for our
industry.
>>Female Presenter: Great.
Well, thank you guys.
We're gonna turn it over to Q and A from the
audience.
And if you guys can come up to the mics to
ask your questions, that would be great.
Thanks.
>>FEMALE #1: Hi.
I absolutely love your granola.
And I wish I could go to the restaurant every
week, but I unfortunately don't have that
luxury.
Is there any way that I could get your granola
in any other way?
Do you sell it by the case?
>>Daniel Humm: The recipe is in the cookbook.
>>FEMALE #1: Oh, OK.
I don't trust my cooking skills, however.
So, is there any other way I could get a can
of, a tin of granola?
>>Will Guidara: In addition to the other restaurant,
we are in the process of setting up a company
to sell the granola.
>>FEMALE #1: Oh, nice.
>>Will Guidara: But we're a little busy right
now, so it's gonna take a few months.
In the interim, if you come to the restaurant
and say that you were at the Google Talk,
we'll give you a jar or two of granola.
>>FEMALE #1: Thank you.
I'm so excited.
There's going to be a hundred people there.
>>Female Presenter: You're gonna so regret
putting that on.
>>Will Guidara: No, it's a manageable enough
group.
I think we can deal with that.
>>Female Presenter: All right.
Make them show ID.
There's a lot of people on YouTube.
Yeah.
>>MALE #1: When I go to Eleven Madison Park,
what's really nice is you have this quality
all over the place--in the food, in the presentation,
and in the staff.
And what I find impressive is that you are
actually able to maintain on all levels.
So, how do you do it?
How do you like, if 150 people managed to
get high-quality experience, maintain the
consistent?
>>Will Guidara: My dad, when I was a kid,
gave me this quote.
I think it was by Calvin Coolidge.
It was this long quote, but the last line
was "persistence and determination alone are
omnipotent."
And I think that what we do is something that
requires just being on every single day.
And it's a human organization and it's a team
sport, right?
And you're only as the weakest person on your
team.
So, I think that we hire really good people.
Oftentimes, they bring zero experience.
Most of the people on our team have never
worked in a restaurant before.
But it's our belief that what we do isn't
rocket science.
You can teach that, but you need to surround
yourself with really good people.
And then, being there every single day to
teach and to motivate and to work with people.
And that's why when he says, "I've never gone
to work and not loved it," I don't think you
can be successful in our business without
just loving it.
Otherwise, it would become really, really
exhausting that it's just day in, day out,
day in, day out.
In his talk today, with all the new cooks,
he was talking about how to be an exceptional
chef, you really need to value and love repetition.
And not get bored by repetition, but actually
look at it as an incredibly noble thing.
Always looking to just do something a little
bit better than you did it the day before.
And I think that that applies to the philosophy
that we ask our entire staff to have, but
it also applies to the way in which we need
to manage them and manage the restaurant.
[pause]
>>Female Presenter: Yeah.
>>FEMALE #2: Hi.
So, thanks for coming.
I actually had the pleasure of dining at Eleven
Madison Park, both for lunch and dinner.
But I do have an accessibility question because
I did see you on Martha Stewart about two
years ago.
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah.
>>FEMALE #2: You made this roasted chicken
dish.
It was so appealing on the show and it was
a roasted chicken, but you had infused it
with crumbs and butter.
And so then I got inspired that weekend to
actually make it.
And living in New York, the accessibility
of ingredients is not an issue, right?
So, I had confidence I could probably get
together any of the ingredients in your cookbook.
But when I actually made it, it did turn out
delicious, but it kind of got into this like,
buttery, sappy, soggy mess.
And so--.
>>Will Guidara: Maybe do it better next time.
>>FEMALE #2: Well, true.
[laughter]
But it is one of those home cooking things
where I'm trying to be you and then it's like,
impossible.
So, it was still very flavorful and tasty,
but it really turned into this equivalent
of like, fried chicken.
>>Daniel Humm: Did you chill it before you
baked it after you filled it?
>>FEMALE #2: The chicken?
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah.
>>FEMALE #2: It was a chilled chicken, but
like--.
>>Daniel Humm: No, after you put in the filling.
>>FEMALE #2: Oh, you have to chill it?
[laughter]
>>Daniel Humm: Did you put it back in the--?
>>FEMALE #2: No.
No.
>>Daniel Humm: That's why.
>>FEMALE #2: That's why.
OK.
All right.
I didn't have a specific question about that
particular recipe, but that's my general question
of like, how do we be a little bit more of
a--.
I mean, obviously, you're such a trained chef
and then also have that creative mind to just
have that technique that would--.
I can't even possibly conceive of having the
level of technique in cooking as a home cook.
>>Will Guidara: I think it's our belief, and
this goes back to the entire philosophy of
this book, that to be accessible does not
mean you don't also have to be precise.
I think the cooking, and joking aside when
he says you have to chill it, the food is
as good as it is because everything is done
in a very specific way.
It's not necessarily so difficult and maybe
the recipe through Martha Stewart wasn't tracked
perfectly, but you can't skip a step.
>>FEMALE #2: Oh.
>>Will Guidara: And I think it's the philosophy
behind everything that we do.
Something doesn't need to be super, out of
control difficult.
It just needs to be perfect.
>>FEMALE #2: And precise.
>>Will Guidara: And every single step is important.
And when you talk about how do you get the
restaurant to where it is, it's bestowing
that philosophy on our staff every single
day.
There's no such thing as a shortcut.
I'm not presuming that--.
>>FEMALE #2: No, that's actually very helpful.
Thanks.
>>FEMALE #3: Hello.
>>Will Guidara: Hi.
>>FEMALE #3: So, I have a two-part question.
First, is how can I get an invitation to the
soft opening for the new restaurant?
>>Female Presenter: Everybody at Google, just
show up.
Say you work there.
Joking.
>>FEMALE #3: And then, once I'm there, what
would you be most excited for me to try?
>>Daniel Humm: I think there's been so much
talk about chicken, so--.
[laughter]
I think you gotta try the chicken.
>>Will Guidara: It's pretty cool.
Garrett Oliver.
Do you know who that is?
He runs Brooklyn Brewery.
We're actually doing a project with him where
he's brewing a beer called La Poule, which
is a beer that was made specifically to drink
with that dish.
And we're really enjoying that process with
him.
But I think for me, when he talked about the
vegetables that are gonna be at NoMad--we
just did a couple tastings the past week--and
the vegetable-focused dishes--.
When we say vegetable, we're not saying vegetarian.
We're just saying dishes that have a focus
on vegetables, are just unbelievable.
I can say that 'cause I had nothing to do
with their preparation, but they're really,
really good.
I would try those as well.
>>FEMALE #3: Great.
Thanks.
>>Will Guidara: Thank you for letting us get
away with not answering the first part.
[laughter]
>>MALE #2: Thanks again for coming and for
the great book.
I was curious about the ingredients.
How easy is it to get some of the ingredients
that you work with?
I saw this segment on 60 Minutes about truffles
that makes it harder for you to find the real
truffles from Paris or Italy because of this
black market in China.
Is that the case for you or how about some
of the other ingredients, too?
>>Daniel Humm: I mean, are you speaking for
us in the restaurant or are you speaking for
a home cook?
>>MALE #2: For you in the restaurant.
>>Daniel Humm: I think things are definitely
changing a little bit in the world, especially
with like wild fish from the Atlantic, like
wild turbot or wild John Dory and wild loup
de mer, and they're much more rare.
And the price is really now what sometimes
keeps us from really still getting it.
And because certain things become so expensive
that you would never able to charge that much
to the diners.
As far as truffles, also why I think there's
less and less truffles each year.
I've heard that in 30 years, there will be
no more truffles.
I don't know if that's true, but my belief
is that a high-quality ingredients, you don't
always need to go for this luxurious ingredient.
For me like, a high-quality carrot is a luxurious
ingredient.
And we live close to the black dirt region,
which is in the Hudson Valley, in the foot
of the Hudson Valley.
And the black dirt region is one of the best
regions for growing root vegetables in the
world.
And so, I think we just need to rethink a
little bit.
We need to look close and we can make, and
that's why we are using carrots or cauliflower
or celery as the main ingredient on a dish
because we believe that that is a luxury,
too, because they're grown in the best way
and it's some sort of an heirloom variety.
So, the food is definitely changing a little
bit based on what you've seen on 60 Minutes.
And there's definitely some truth to that.
>>MALE #2: Thanks.
>>Female Presenter: Do we have time for two
more?
Are we good?
Yeah?
We can do two more.
We'll just take these last two questions.
>>FEMALE #4: Mine's quick, I swear.
So, I've had the luxury of going to Eleven
Madison Park a couple of times.
It's been really amazing every time.
>>Daniel Humm: Yeah.
>>FEMALE #4: So, my compliments to you.
>>Will Guidara: Thank you.
>>FEMALE #4: But I have this separate question
from something that I was a little hung up
on.
Being a native West Chesterite, I have to
ask which Baskin Robbins you worked in.
[laughter]
>>Will Guidara: In Tarrytown.
>>FEMALE #4: Not mine.
I was hoping you would be the one in Rye,
because you probably would've been giving
me ice cream time I went to Hebrew School.
>>Will Guidara: My friend Jerry Mack's mom
owned the Baskin Robbins, which was why I
was able to get a job and why I didn't lose
it every time I messed up writing on the cakes
when you had to write "Happy Birthday."
I still freak out at the idea of having to
do that.
[laughter]
>>FEMALE #4: Did you make the clown cones
also?
>>Will Guidara: Yes, I did.
I was very good at it.
>>FEMALE #4: Very impressive.
Thanks.
>>Will Guidara: Thank you.
>>FEMALE #5: Hi.
I've had the pleasure of being immersed in
the New York City food, wine, and restaurant
world through a rather diverse background.
And in that, I've met Davis Anderson, your
newest Sommelier.
>>Will Guidara: Oh, yeah.
>>FEMALE #5: And so, first I just wanted to
say he's already had the pleasure of meeting
Chef and he said very good things.
>>Will Guidara: Cool.
>>FEMALE #5: My question is around collaboration
and creativity as you have talked about the
culture of Eleven Madison Park.
What is the process involving the menu?
Does it involve everyone in the back of house?
Do you have a conversation with the front
of house?
Is it a weekly meeting?
How often does it change?
>>Daniel Humm: I think the menu changes every
week and not fully, but a couple dishes.
And the way we do it, we have a meeting every
month that just talks about what dishes we
gonna change.
And it's a core group of four people.
It's just the people who have been with me
the longest who have creative input.
And then, we're throwing out some ingredients,
some ideas everyone has.
And then, we're reviewing it and we start
working on it.
And then, each of the sous chefs is gonna
work with the team on it, so we get also influence
from the team.
And then every week, we get together and we
see the results of where we went.
And this is the process.
And sometimes, in the first try, a dish turns
out to be incredible and sometimes, after
five tries, it's still not working and we
need to scratch the whole idea.
It's never, I wish there would be a very clear
formula how it works.
I mean, we have a way of how the process works,
but some ideas work and some don't.
And it's important that you have ideas that
some of them that don't work because that
means you're really searching hard enough
and you're really trying to be creative.
And sometimes, you go down a path for like,
five weeks and you learn a lot in that process.
And maybe five weeks later, it's like, "Now
the dish is just, now it's just about the
technique and it doesn't taste good anymore."
But maybe six months later it could be like,
"Oh, you remember when we did that and it
didn't work?
But now maybe it could work."
>>FEMALE #5: And by not work, it comes back
with the plate full or not fully cleaned off?
>>Daniel Humm: No.
It would never be served.
For me, the most important thing is that a
dish has to be really delicious.
And I think I'm a pretty good judge of that.
Even as a chef, you have to, yeah, you wanna
show your technique or you wanna show what
you can do, but in the end of the day, it
has to be delicious.
And even if it's like super creative and super
inventive, if it doesn't taste good, forget
it.
And I think I'm a pretty good judge of knowing
when it's just about the technique or when
it's actually tastes good.
>>FEMALE #5: Thanks.
>>Daniel Humm: Thank you.
>>Female Presenter: Well, thank you both so
much for being here.
It's been fun.
>>Will Guidara: Thank you.
>>Daniel Humm: Thank you.
[applause]
