Speaker 1: When I put my creative hat back on, I knew
Speaker 1: that I had changed, and I knew that I had
Speaker 1: no interest in reopening the same eleven Madison Park as before.
Speaker 2: Hello, this is Martha Stewart and this is my podcast.
Speaker 2: And following is probably the longest introduction of any of
Speaker 2: my podcasts to date. First Michelin Star, at age twenty four,
Speaker 2: the number one restaurant in the world. More than a
Speaker 2: decade of three Michelin Stars, Chef Daniel hum has earned
Speaker 2: the highest accolades in the culinary world. He is the
Speaker 2: ambitious chef at the Helm of eleven Madison Park, a
Speaker 2: fine dining restaurant in the Flat Iron District in New
Speaker 2: York City. Eleven Madison Park turned twenty five years old
Speaker 2: this month, and chef whom is here to talk to
Speaker 2: us today about its history and the distinct ways in
Speaker 2: which it has evolved, including its most radical reinvention to
Speaker 2: date as an entirely plant based restaurant. Welcome to my podcast.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Mark, Chef.
Speaker 2: Let me call you, Chef, Well, you just celebrated the
Speaker 2: twenty fifth anniversary of your beautiful restaurant. I live in
Speaker 2: Madison Park. Congratulations, can you tell us a little bit
Speaker 2: about the history about Danny Meyer in the beginning of
Speaker 2: this iconic.
Speaker 1: Rest Of course, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: The restaurant opened in nineteen ninety eight before me, Danny
Speaker 1: Meyer opened the restaurant, And as you said, it's in
Speaker 1: the Flatiron District, and it's right adjacent to Madison Square Park,
Speaker 1: and it was quite visionary at that time to open
Speaker 1: a restaurant in that location because Madison Square Park wasn't
Speaker 1: what it is today. Today it's a beautiful park, but
Speaker 1: back then it was quite dilapidated, and that whole wilrio
Speaker 1: wasn't what it was to do. And that's I think
Speaker 1: the beauty to see how a restaurant actually can change
Speaker 1: a neighborhood. And I think Danny Meyer deserves a lot
Speaker 1: of credit for that. I think he has done that
Speaker 1: in a lot of places in New York City. He
Speaker 1: opened a restaurant as a barrassary. The restaurant is located
Speaker 1: in a historical building. The building was meant to become
Speaker 1: the tallest building in the world. It was built in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight. Then the Great Depression hit. They ran
Speaker 1: out of money and just the build was halted. Actually
Speaker 1: the building is an entire city block large, but it
Speaker 1: only is thirty stories tall, and it was meant to
Speaker 1: be over one hundred of What we ended up with
Speaker 1: is these gigantic arches for the entrance of the restaurant,
Speaker 1: even the lobby, which is where our restaurant is located.
Speaker 1: The scale is as if you would be in the
Speaker 1: tallest built in the world. So were the beneficiary of
Speaker 1: those scales.
Speaker 2: It's so amazing to walk into that restaurant and feel
Speaker 2: so surrounded by very tall ceilings unlike any other restaurant,
Speaker 2: and so luxurious in architecture.
Speaker 1: I mean, for me, when I first stepped foot into
Speaker 1: the restaurant, I just knew that I had entered one
Speaker 1: of the most beautiful restaurant spaces I've ever seen or
Speaker 1: ever been in, And it was clear that it had
Speaker 1: the potential to be something very very special.
Speaker 2: And who was the chef when Danny Meyer opened the restaurant.
Speaker 1: The chef was Carrie Huffernan, and he was the opening
Speaker 1: chef and he remained the chef until.
Speaker 2: I joined, and you joined in what year?
Speaker 1: I started in two thousand and six. In January two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, I was briefly in San Francisco for
Speaker 1: two years before coming there from Switzerland, where I grew up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been there also eighteen years in the twenty five year.
Speaker 2: History, and an amazing eighteen years it has been. It's
Speaker 2: been you do not You're like the rolling stone. You
Speaker 2: don't get covered any moss anywhere. Boy, you just you
Speaker 2: evolve and evolve and evolve and change and so great.
Speaker 2: I love that about you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: So what are you doing to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary?
Speaker 2: Are you eating silver? Have you figured out a way
Speaker 2: to cook silver?
Speaker 1: No? We actually, you know, it was it was an interesting,
Speaker 1: interesting question. I mean, we created a money that is
Speaker 1: a retrospective and pays homage to all these years and
Speaker 1: all these there's been many different chapters along the way.
Speaker 1: And you know, as you said, we turned the restaurant
Speaker 1: into fully plant based after the pandemic almost three years
Speaker 1: ago now, and the big question was, you know, are
Speaker 1: we gonna cook the fish and meat dishes from the
Speaker 1: past to paid tribute. But our team felt very strongly
Speaker 1: that no, we are now you know, fully committed to
Speaker 1: this plant based journey.
Speaker 2: So don't go there looking for doc.
Speaker 1: No. The doc won't be there. But what it was interesting,
Speaker 1: even as a refresher for us, it was to see that,
Speaker 1: you know, this actually didn't happen overnight. We always were
Speaker 1: creative with vegetables, and we always loved to really push
Speaker 1: vegetables to the foreground. Even there. There's a dish that
Speaker 1: is the Kara Turtar, and this dish was created in
Speaker 1: twenty ten, and at that time we knew we wanted
Speaker 1: to be an iconic New York City restaurant, so we
Speaker 1: studied the iconic restaurants like the twenty one Club or
Speaker 1: the Four Seasons Restaurant or the Delmonicos, and what we
Speaker 1: saw is that they all had a version on a
Speaker 1: steak tartar on their money. So we're like, well, we
Speaker 1: also need one. And for like a year we worked
Speaker 1: on that dish, and we worked with different dry aged
Speaker 1: beef and venison and all kinds of things, and we
Speaker 1: just couldn't figure out how we would add something new
Speaker 1: to this dish. And after like a year, we knew
Speaker 1: that we wanted to grind the meat table size in
Speaker 1: one of those old school grinders, but we couldn't figure
Speaker 1: it out. And then one day I spent time in Warwick,
Speaker 1: New York, up state, and I spent time with this farmer,
Speaker 1: Alex Pathnroth, who is like a master in growing carrots,
Speaker 1: and he talked my ears off for an entire day
Speaker 1: about the sweet carrot, about the medic carrot, about the
Speaker 1: city carroda. And so by the time I came back
Speaker 1: to the restaurant that night and we were having another
Speaker 1: sort of like R and D session, and I looked
Speaker 1: at the carrots and I looked at the meat, and
Speaker 1: it was just clear that the best version on a
Speaker 1: steak tartar, even in our eyes, even in twenty ten,
Speaker 1: ended up actually being a carrot tartar. So this has
Speaker 1: been and sort of like long in the making.
Speaker 2: Guess what I just had the other night. Tell me
Speaker 2: I had beach tartar, Oh my god, at the Stone Barns.
Speaker 2: Amazing and it was incredibly delicious. And it's their new beat.
Speaker 2: They have just developed a new beat, you know, they
Speaker 2: develop hybrids of all kinds of vegetables, and this kind
Speaker 2: of red light red beat tastes just like steak tartar
Speaker 2: beautiful and it was wonderful. And so here I'm coming
Speaker 2: back to taste the twenty eleven, So what's in it?
Speaker 1: I mean, I just wanted to also give a shout
Speaker 1: out to Dan Barber at Stone Barns. I think he's
Speaker 1: a real pioneer in growing and cooking the vegetables. And
Speaker 1: I have so much respect for love credible.
Speaker 2: Job at Stone Barns. I mean, it's hard for me
Speaker 2: to eat real steak tartar now after tasting the beat.
Speaker 2: And I want to taste your carrot. I have beautiful
Speaker 2: big carrots in my garden, but what kind of carrots
Speaker 2: should we be using? Old carrots? New carrots?
Speaker 1: We used this like French carrot called charon.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh I had that, Yeah, that one.
Speaker 1: And that to me, that is like the best for
Speaker 1: this dish.
Speaker 2: It does it matter if the carrots are like a
Speaker 2: little bit old in the ground with hair on them, It.
Speaker 1: Does not mess. It matters. It's actually no, it's actually
Speaker 1: not good. It's actually sweetness. And we even leave some
Speaker 1: of the We actually leave even some of the skin
Speaker 1: as we're doing the dish because it has a little
Speaker 1: bit more often earth.
Speaker 2: So you grinded the old hand grinder. Oh yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: coming right away for that. I want to taste. So
Speaker 2: how did you meet Danny Meyer in the first place.
Speaker 2: I mean you were in California.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Danny Meyer came. I was at a
Speaker 1: restaurant called the Campton Place.
Speaker 2: Oh. I loved Campton Place, And yeah, I used to
Speaker 2: stay in that hotel really. Oh yeah, when I started
Speaker 2: going on book tours. So nineteen eighty two was my
Speaker 2: first book tour, and then in nineteen ninety ish I
Speaker 2: stayed at the Campton Place and I stayed there until
Speaker 2: until it kind of like lost its luster. But it
Speaker 2: was such a lovely and who was the original chef there.
Speaker 2: He was very famous at the time.
Speaker 1: It was Bradley.
Speaker 2: That's right, Bradley. And where is he?
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened to you. I know he
Speaker 1: opened the restaurant in Las Vegas at some point he did.
Speaker 2: Oh, he was such that was innovative food. It was.
Speaker 2: So that's where you went to The Campton Place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they had a history of a few very
Speaker 1: successful that was on a park also, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: But Danny Meyer ate there and I was really brand
Speaker 1: new to America and he ate there and and then
Speaker 1: three days later.
Speaker 2: He got an offer.
Speaker 1: He called and I didn't know who he was, and
Speaker 1: then I said, who is Danny Weyre And then everyone
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you should probably take that call. It
Speaker 1: was also interesting he he sort of had this opportunity
Speaker 1: of eleven Madison Park, and I said, you, you know,
Speaker 1: I really love New York and I could really see
Speaker 1: myself in New York. But in three days we are
Speaker 1: actually going to get four stars, which was the highest
Speaker 1: rating in the San Francisco Chronicle. So I told him
Speaker 1: that the timing might not be perfect, because when you
Speaker 1: get this kind of award, you want to stay for
Speaker 1: a while and kind of show, you know, because then
Speaker 1: everyone is coming.
Speaker 2: And so you were you were you the chef at
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But then there was actually an ownership change
Speaker 1: in the hotel as a family owned and then a
Speaker 1: big chain kind of bought it, and then it all
Speaker 1: kind of worked out. I visited New York, I met
Speaker 1: with Danny, we walked through the space. I had the
Speaker 1: feeling that this could be one of the great restaurants
Speaker 1: in the world.
Speaker 2: What did you learn from Danny Meyer, who is still
Speaker 2: very active in the restaurant world. He took his company
Speaker 2: public after he built a Shakeshack.
Speaker 1: I mean, I learned so much from him, but I
Speaker 1: think one of the big things is he put language
Speaker 1: around what we are doing in restaurants, like the way
Speaker 1: we take care of people, the way we take care
Speaker 1: of ourselves. He just put language around all of it.
Speaker 1: He made it more noble.
Speaker 2: He made it a very important industry.
Speaker 1: I think that's not right.
Speaker 2: And he brought hospitality to that world, didn't he.
Speaker 1: He made it something you would be proud of to
Speaker 1: be part of it.
Speaker 2: And you have continued in that tradition very nicely. I
Speaker 2: must say, yeah, thank you really wonderfully. So where did
Speaker 2: you grow up? I mean, go, let's go back. I
Speaker 2: want to know a little bit more. I mean, you
Speaker 2: grew up in Switzerland where.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Zurich. I grew up with hippie parents.
Speaker 1: In fact, I grew up eating vegetarian very few times.
Speaker 1: Once in a while we had like a chicken from
Speaker 1: some farm. But this is like twice a year kind
Speaker 1: of thing, but mostly vegetarian. But I also had kind
Speaker 1: of a difficult relationship with my parents, and I was
Speaker 1: I left home when I was fifteen years old to
Speaker 1: become a professional cyclist. All I cared about was bicycle
Speaker 1: racing and winning bicycle races and then when I was
Speaker 1: twenty two years old, I had an accident and biking
Speaker 1: and I were in a race, in a race in
Speaker 1: Switzerland in the Alps, in the Alps, and I ended
Speaker 1: up being a hospital for quite a long time. I
Speaker 1: was in a coma.
Speaker 2: Actually, did the parent your parents come to visit you?
Speaker 1: They didn't come to me.
Speaker 2: By that time you were reunited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it, okay, yes, but I did not
Speaker 1: even you know. And then growing up, I was this
Speaker 1: kind of weird kid that would bring the school lunch
Speaker 1: in a glass topper wear and there was we only
Speaker 1: had home baked things, and I always felt like embarrassed
Speaker 1: towards the other kids who had like things from the
Speaker 1: grocery stores. And I wanted to have that, but I
Speaker 1: never did. But then I realized how lucky I was
Speaker 1: to develop this love for real food and real taste,
Speaker 1: and becoming a cyclist. What I ate became very important
Speaker 1: to me as well. And then when I had the accident,
Speaker 1: I left school when I was fourteen years old, so
Speaker 1: I didn't really.
Speaker 2: What happened in the accident described the hideous accident.
Speaker 1: It was in a race and we trained on the course.
Speaker 1: It was a mountain bike race, and we trained on
Speaker 1: the course the whole week leading up to it. But
Speaker 1: then in the race, I was at a very different
Speaker 1: speed and I just it was in a curve and
Speaker 1: I thought I could take the curve at a high
Speaker 1: speed and I just couldn't. I went over the rocks.
Speaker 1: Thankfully I didn't hit my head, but I had a
Speaker 1: lot of internal bleedings and a lot of broken bones,
Speaker 1: and iirlifted.
Speaker 2: And you would never know this from looking at at
Speaker 2: the handsome Daniel home right now, and you walk very
Speaker 2: straight and very and very nice. So you're all better.
Speaker 1: I'm all good, and you know, I'm definitely dedicated to
Speaker 1: that work. I'm practicing yoga almost every day, and I
Speaker 1: recommend it to everyone. I think if there's one activity
Speaker 1: you should do for the rest of your life, it
Speaker 1: should be along the lines of yoga or pilates. I
Speaker 1: think it's beyond crucial.
Speaker 2: Very important. Well so so twenty three, you're so so.
Speaker 1: Then I was in the hospital and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: I do have this love for food. And actually you
Speaker 1: might know this restaurant, but it was a restaurant Freddie
Speaker 1: Share day.
Speaker 2: It was like Freddy, Sure, Oh gosh, I Madelgrimages.
Speaker 1: And this is actually where I went to go. Really
Speaker 1: it was at that time the only three star restaurant
Speaker 1: in Switzerland.
Speaker 2: And you know, he was extremely innovative and extremely beautiful food.
Speaker 1: One of the founding fathers of like novel quis what
Speaker 1: we know today as a fine dining and he loved cycling,
Speaker 1: so he was obsessed with cycling and the cycling culture.
Speaker 1: And we were there with our team when I was
Speaker 1: like eighteen years old and we had a big race
Speaker 1: and on the way home he actually invited our team.
Speaker 1: I was part of the Swiss national team, and he
Speaker 1: invited us to have dinner and we had dinner in
Speaker 1: the kitchen and it was the first time I saw
Speaker 1: a professional kitchen on that level. There were like twenty
Speaker 1: chefs and everyone impeccable white, impeccable cleanliness, and they were
Speaker 1: working like it was a ballet. And there I felt like, wow,
Speaker 1: cooking on this level is kind of like a sport.
Speaker 1: And when I then was in the hospital, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I want to do that, and I called him and
Speaker 1: it was on a Friday, and he said, can you
Speaker 1: start on Tuesday? And at that time there was a
Speaker 1: waiting list and people waited two years to get a charge.
Speaker 1: He took me and I made cooking my new sport,
Speaker 1: and it was about winning, and it was about working
Speaker 1: for the best, becoming the best, and then eventually it
Speaker 1: was about winning awards.
Speaker 2: So then at twenty four years old, you actually won
Speaker 2: a Michelin Star.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So two years after I left Freddie Shure day
Speaker 1: and I went to go work in this small inn
Speaker 1: in Switzerland. And I was only there for four months,
Speaker 1: and then I got a call from Michla and they said, well,
Speaker 1: there's been seeing what I'm doing. I'm going to get
Speaker 1: a Michelin Star.
Speaker 2: And say, what was the name of that restaurant.
Speaker 1: It was called Ghosthouse, some beautiful restaurant overlooking the Alps
Speaker 1: and the lakes. It was outside of Sankolin. But you know, Martha,
Speaker 1: I was not ready for this at all. Like I
Speaker 1: didn't know who I was as a chef. I didn't
Speaker 1: know who I was as a person, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden I got all this attention that was quite
Speaker 1: difficult and overwhelming.
Speaker 2: And it would have longed to stay at that restaurant.
Speaker 1: I only stayed there two years. Also, and one day
Speaker 1: I got a call from a hotelier in San Francisco
Speaker 1: who happened to be Swiss, and he said, oh, he
Speaker 1: heard about my cooking, and I'm looking for a chef
Speaker 1: to move to America and I would love for you
Speaker 1: to come. And in my head it was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, like I never thought of America as like
Speaker 1: a culinary destination. And I didn't speak English at that time. Wow,
Speaker 1: And so I said, you know, this is probably not
Speaker 1: for me, but thank you. But he was very persistent
Speaker 1: and he called again, and eventually he invited me to
Speaker 1: come to San Francisco to visit, all paid for, which
Speaker 1: at that point I was like, okay, I'm going to
Speaker 1: take that opportunity. And I remember and this was Campton
Speaker 1: Place was Campton Place, and he was there, I remember
Speaker 1: so well. The hotel GM waited for me in his
Speaker 1: silver BMW at the airport when I arrived, and he
Speaker 1: took me right up to the Napa Valley and we
Speaker 1: went to go see whinyards wate at the French Laundry,
Speaker 1: and then on the way back we went to Shapanice
Speaker 1: and then we saw the farmers market at the Ferry Building,
Speaker 1: and within four days I was sold. I saw an
Speaker 1: energy and an excitement for food and artisans and farming
Speaker 1: like I felt like I never saw before. And after
Speaker 1: I left, it was clear to me that I wanted
Speaker 1: to be in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: Well, and then you accepted the job. I accepted the
Speaker 2: to go back to Switzerland and finish up some stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I went back to Switzerland. I finished my job there.
Speaker 1: I also had to get a visa and I actually
Speaker 1: you got a CHA one student visa for one year,
Speaker 1: and I came back on a Lufthansa flight. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that much about Campton Place or I was just
Speaker 1: excited about the city. I was lucky because Campton Place
Speaker 1: had a history of all these well known chefs, so
Speaker 1: people paid attention what was happening there. And again there
Speaker 1: things happened so quickly. I got a Chain Spirit award
Speaker 1: within the first six months, as like rising Star Chef.
Speaker 1: And this was actually the first time I moved to
Speaker 1: New York City. And again I didn't speak English.
Speaker 2: How did you learn you're speaking so well now?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: Did you take courses?
Speaker 1: No courses just in the kitchen. I never went to
Speaker 1: cooking school. I never taken English courses.
Speaker 2: Are these the only two languages speak French, French and
Speaker 2: English and English. Yeah, yeah, wow, it's very very impressive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my path has been that. You know, I never
Speaker 1: finished even high school, so I think I learned a
Speaker 1: lot on the go. And it's been okay.
Speaker 2: So you stayed at came from place for how long?
Speaker 1: Two years?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: And then Danny Meyer came and I moved to New
Speaker 1: York because I felt that New York was the place
Speaker 1: to be. And Andy levin Madison Park, I've never seen
Speaker 1: a more beautiful restaurant. And I felt like I could
Speaker 1: stay there for a long time.
Speaker 2: And did you come as the chef at that time?
Speaker 1: I became as the chef and then I had a
Speaker 1: business partner in the dining room.
Speaker 2: That was Will.
Speaker 1: That was Will Yes, and then that's.
Speaker 2: Will good Era. Everyone you've heard, I hope my podcast
Speaker 2: with Will. We had a nice conversation in this room.
Speaker 2: And he was so excited when you won the World's
Speaker 2: Best Restaurant award that was twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well so yeah, it was incredible, but it was
Speaker 1: it was mixed because for me, it was all about
Speaker 1: winning and I wanted to win every award, and we
Speaker 1: won all the awards, and as we were going. I
Speaker 1: always understood intellectually that none of these awards are that meaningful.
Speaker 1: But what was meaningful it was that it gave something
Speaker 1: to talk about with your team. It gave the team
Speaker 1: a direction. It's easy to understand. It's measurable too, and
Speaker 1: it does make the restaurant better and better and better.
Speaker 1: But the problem was, as we won after the other
Speaker 1: after the other, when we became the best restaurant in
Speaker 1: the world, there was not a single award that was
Speaker 1: left to win, and so it was actually quite disorienting,
Speaker 1: and I knew that there had to be.
Speaker 2: Some to start thinking about reward. After awards, you think
Speaker 2: about the reward and the money and the financial success
Speaker 2: and getting everything in all your ducks in order right.
Speaker 1: And that's complicated too.
Speaker 2: Very cool, you know, and you were with Will for
Speaker 2: how long he was your was he a very very
Speaker 2: close partner.
Speaker 1: We were super close to I mean, we built so
Speaker 1: much together. I think we were very successful and powerful
Speaker 1: as long as we had the same goal. And I
Speaker 1: think we spent every day talking about how to become
Speaker 1: the best restaurant in the world, but we never talked
Speaker 1: about what happens when we become the best restaurant, but
Speaker 1: not for five minutes. We just never talked about.
Speaker 2: Not about expansion, not about We.
Speaker 1: Really didn't talk about that. And then the moment we became.
Speaker 2: How did you celebrate when you won that award the
Speaker 2: best restaurant? How did you guys celebrate?
Speaker 1: I mean, we definitely always celebrated. We always have parties.
Speaker 1: And actually Questlove, who is a friend of mine, came
Speaker 1: and DJA the party at eleven Madison Park. And when
Speaker 1: we became the best restaurant in the world, it was
Speaker 1: also right before when we closed the restaurant for eight
Speaker 1: months for major renovation, and right before that we had
Speaker 1: a huge party with Quest Love, and he told me
Speaker 1: that this was the longest DJ said he's ever played.
Speaker 1: He played till like six in the morning, and it
Speaker 1: was a blast. And then we renovated the restaurant, and
Speaker 1: then I think we all sort of tried to figure
Speaker 1: out what the future looks like and where to go next,
Speaker 1: which wasn't an easy twenty nineteen or something like this
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen eighteen, Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so is that when when you split your partnership
Speaker 2: split up?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we decided to go different paths because we
Speaker 1: didn't see eye too, I anymore?
Speaker 2: And personally were you worried? Were you single? What? What
Speaker 2: were the two of you doing personally?
Speaker 1: Personally? Will was married and I have had been divorced
Speaker 1: for five years at that point, so was single.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you you were totally business focused, but or
Speaker 2: cooking focused.
Speaker 1: The thing I'm trying to still find an answer for.
Speaker 1: But I am so focused on my work and it's
Speaker 1: truly the number one priority in my life, and it's
Speaker 1: what I think about when I get up, and it's
Speaker 1: what I think about when I go to bed. And
Speaker 1: I really love what I do so much. But sometimes
Speaker 1: I wonder, you know still how to find the balance
Speaker 1: in life. But maybe this is not exactly for this lifetime.
Speaker 1: Maybe in this lifetime it's meant to be very Balance is.
Speaker 2: Very hard to find. I think men have more trouble
Speaker 2: finding balance than men have because men's careers are usually
Speaker 2: a life career and women change a lot. But it
Speaker 2: is hard. Balance is extremely difficult. And balancing a social life,
Speaker 2: a business life, of travel life, whatever. Oh, it's so hard.
Speaker 2: So so you dissolve the partnership.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then the pandemic hits, the pandemically.
Speaker 2: Evil twenty and twenty twenty twenty years.
Speaker 1: It's devastating because if you think about it's almost every
Speaker 1: ten years, So it was like two and one and
Speaker 1: then ten years later the financial crisis and then pandemic.
Speaker 1: But the pandemic we had two hundred and fifty employees
Speaker 1: at that point. We had people from all over the world.
Speaker 1: And there was one night, I think it was March sixteen,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, when the city got shut down, and I
Speaker 1: remember our restaurant was full, full, full till the last day,
Speaker 1: and then we took the whole staff together and we said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, the city shutting down, we're probably going to
Speaker 1: see each other again in two weeks or so. That
Speaker 1: team has never been together ever since. I mean we
Speaker 1: were close for almost two years, two entire years no business.
Speaker 2: And it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, in real estate people talk about location, location, location.
Speaker 1: In restaurants, it's about people, people people. So no matter
Speaker 1: how beautiful the restaurant eleven Madison Park is, without its
Speaker 1: incredible people, it's just an empty shell. So that was
Speaker 1: really heartbreaking and we had to grabble around that. We're
Speaker 1: also facing extreme difficulties financially because if you have no
Speaker 1: business and you have rent and still costs, you can't
Speaker 1: pay it, So we're actually facing bankruptcy.
Speaker 2: Were using all owner at the time.
Speaker 1: At that time, I was the solow Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: am a co founder of an organization called Rethink Food.
Speaker 1: We take food from restaurants, we cook meals for people
Speaker 1: in need. And because of that, I was super tapped
Speaker 1: into what was going on around food and security in
Speaker 1: New York City. New York City has eight million people
Speaker 1: before pandemic, there's a million people of food insecure. Within
Speaker 1: the first two weeks of the pandemic, I can just
Speaker 1: imagine the number doubled. It's twenty five percent of New
Speaker 1: York City being food insecure. And I'm not speaking about
Speaker 1: homeless people. These are people with three jobs just having
Speaker 1: a hard time bringing food on the table.
Speaker 2: And kids, yeah and so, and kids at home who
Speaker 2: eat more at home.
Speaker 1: Because were not in schools, the schools.
Speaker 2: Which they relied on.
Speaker 1: Yes, So now I'm sitting here having lost my team,
Speaker 1: facing bankruptcy, which I don't wish anyone, but I knew
Speaker 1: I had a space, I knew had access to some cooks,
Speaker 1: and I knew that the farmers are also sitting on
Speaker 1: food that's going bad. So I decided to turn eleven
Speaker 1: Mileson Park into a community kitchen, and we brought a
Speaker 1: team back within the first three weeks of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and we raised some money and we just started cooking
Speaker 1: meals for people in need. And at the height, we
Speaker 1: cooked eight thousand meals every single day. And that work
Speaker 1: changed my life because not only did we cook the meals,
Speaker 1: but we also went out into the neighborhoods, like I
Speaker 1: went to neighborhoods. And I've been living in New York
Speaker 1: for twenty years, and I felt guilty. But I live
Speaker 1: in a very small sliver of New York City, and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm in parts of Brooklyn, in
Speaker 1: East New York, I in Harlem, i' mean Queens. I'm
Speaker 1: in all these places, and I'm also meeting amazing people,
Speaker 1: these amazing angels. There are people who do in God's work,
Speaker 1: people who give everything, who have very little, and so
Speaker 1: not only all of a sudden, I got up in
Speaker 1: the morning, in the midst of the pandemic, and I
Speaker 1: felt a happiness. I felt like I wanted to get up.
Speaker 1: I felt like my work, my cooking. For the first
Speaker 1: time in my life is actually making a difference, and
Speaker 1: so I knew that I had found something bigger. And
Speaker 1: during the pandemic, I wasn't sure if I ever wanted
Speaker 1: to open eleven Madison Park again, because I felt like
Speaker 1: I brought what I wanted to do, become the best
Speaker 1: chef in the world. I feel like I did that.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what else there is to do. And
Speaker 1: the truth is, in the end, it made me feel
Speaker 1: empty all the awards, and I did it for my
Speaker 1: ego and my team's ego. And so during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: I realized that I wanted to do something that was
Speaker 1: more meaningful and it had to be about giving back
Speaker 1: in some way. Six months into the pandemic, the landlord
Speaker 1: called me, a big landlord in New York City, s
Speaker 1: el Green they called me, and I thought, oh, maybe
Speaker 1: they're going to kick me out and it's over. But
Speaker 1: they actually called and say, hey, we see what you're doing.
Speaker 1: We want to be in support whatever it will.
Speaker 2: That's a very nice organization.
Speaker 1: By the way, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2: They've done so much for New York and the hospitality industry.
Speaker 1: So they forgave all my rent.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And when I. At that point, we still didn't know
Speaker 1: how long it would take to reopen, or how long
Speaker 1: the pandemic would take. And when I put my creative
Speaker 1: hat back on, I knew that I had changed, and
Speaker 1: I knew that I had no interest in reopening the
Speaker 1: same eleven Madison Park as before. And I felt the
Speaker 1: responsibility because eleven Madison Park is this native platform we
Speaker 1: push boundaries, and so in terms of creativity, I knew
Speaker 1: that the world did not need another version on a
Speaker 1: bother poach lobster, or on a steak, or on our
Speaker 1: famous doc. But creativity had to go towards plant based eating.
Speaker 2: And so that's what you did. And I have tasted
Speaker 2: this delicious food. It is. It is unusual. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: is curious in many ways, and it does not disappoint.
Speaker 1: I mean, vegetables are so beautiful.
Speaker 2: I love vegetables that you can see you walk through
Speaker 2: my vegetable bard. It's still productive, even almost almost November
Speaker 2: as we as we speak.
Speaker 1: At first, we thought maybe this would be limiting because
Speaker 1: we leave all these things behind that we were known
Speaker 1: for and that we cooked for years. But when I
Speaker 1: look back today, I feel like we were limited before.
Speaker 1: I feel like before we were cooking seasonal condiments for
Speaker 1: fish and meat, and today I feel like we create
Speaker 1: the entire cuisine and what a main course could be.
Speaker 2: So what are some of the other vegetable dishes besides
Speaker 2: the carrot tartoar? What else are you serving?
Speaker 1: Well, we started our own farm called Magic Farm in
Speaker 1: upstate New York, in Husick, New York, which has allowed
Speaker 1: us to you know, explore even deeper. So like, for example,
Speaker 1: in the summer, we are cooking sunflower hearts, and in
Speaker 1: factually we take the sunflowers, we harvest them right before
Speaker 1: they open up, so they're almost like little artie chokes.
Speaker 1: So we work with sunflowers. We have a vegetable that's
Speaker 1: sort of like Chinese led us, but it's called cell
Speaker 1: tows and I love the roots.
Speaker 2: The restaurant, that's right, and the menu was Celsius. Yes,
Speaker 2: I think we had at least five courses with Celsius.
Speaker 2: And the children kept looking at it and saying, is
Speaker 2: this the same vegetable? It was very interesting. And Sulta's
Speaker 2: is like the heart of a like an almost like
Speaker 2: a heart of a big fat escroll in a way.
Speaker 1: Isn't it. Yeah? I think that's right. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's right. And it tastes a little bit like I
Speaker 1: would say, it's a little bit between a cucumber and
Speaker 1: the celery, but it has also this like beautiful taste
Speaker 1: of yeaeah.
Speaker 2: So you've figured out how to cook that in many ways.
Speaker 1: But vegetables are really truly limitless, and especially here in
Speaker 1: this region.
Speaker 2: Are you using a centrifuge with your vegetables too? Do
Speaker 2: you use that? We don't use that because Nathan Mervill
Speaker 2: taught me all about making like pea butter or carrot
Speaker 2: butter in a in a centrifuge.
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you put peas in there and what is left
Speaker 2: after it spins a you know, thousands of rotations a
Speaker 2: second or you're left with the essence of the peas
Speaker 2: it takes. It's like a butter because there's a lot
Speaker 2: of fat in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, and.
Speaker 2: I bought one. I bought a centril future right away.
Speaker 2: You should experience. Have you visited Nathan's food lamb I have.
Speaker 2: It's so extreme, but I mean he's to him too.
Speaker 2: Vegetables are limitless.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's UNBELI it is.
Speaker 2: And that's the future. By the way, we have to know.
Speaker 1: It's so beautiful. It's also so much healthier. You know,
Speaker 1: like even in the dining room before, it was like
Speaker 1: the energy in the dining room it was like very
Speaker 1: high as people were starting their meals, and then by
Speaker 1: the time they got to the main course, it kind
Speaker 1: of like crashed and everyone was sort of like ready
Speaker 1: to roll out of the restaurant. And now the energy
Speaker 1: the night goes on. It's unbelievable, how great. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's maybe because of the fermented foods,
Speaker 1: but it's also much more lighter, and people tell me
Speaker 1: all the time, like people sleep so much better, they
Speaker 1: feel so much healthier. I mean, it's it's it has
Speaker 1: a lot of beautiful side effects beyond the delicious meal.
Speaker 2: My daughter is raising her kids as vegetarians. They eat
Speaker 2: a little bit of fish, but very what monitored because
Speaker 2: of the iodine poisoning and stuff. But you recommend it highly.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, as an athlete, how many athletes for vegetarians
Speaker 2: these days?
Speaker 1: There are a lot of them. Yeah, the runners and runners,
Speaker 1: endurance athletes in general. I mean there's football players, there's
Speaker 1: tennis players, I mean all over.
Speaker 2: What kind of impact is the plant based emp having
Speaker 2: across the whole industry, what do you think.
Speaker 1: You know? I do believe that doing this at the
Speaker 1: highest level. I understand it's not the most accessible because
Speaker 1: not everyone can eat at eleven mess in Park, but
Speaker 1: I do believe we have an important role in those establishments,
Speaker 1: sort of for leading the way. It's a little bit
Speaker 1: like in fashion. It's like the things that you see
Speaker 1: on a runway, you know, you end up seeing at
Speaker 1: Sarah and H and M. And I think the same
Speaker 1: is true in restaurants. I think it does influence. For me.
Speaker 1: It was also about sort of like the luxury. I
Speaker 1: think we need to value vegetables more. I think we
Speaker 1: still have this perception that a piece of meat is
Speaker 1: more valuable than a carrot or a celt to use.
Speaker 2: Well, it's getting to be more expensive, first of all,
Speaker 2: and fish fish, I mean palab Now at my local
Speaker 2: fish Longer is forty five dollars a pound. Who can
Speaker 2: afford that?
Speaker 1: No, for me, this came as a reaction. I'm no
Speaker 1: climate expert or food systems expert, but I'm an expert
Speaker 1: in what I see coming to my kitchen in terms
Speaker 1: of ingredients and mark I've seen such a dramatic change
Speaker 1: of like ingredients have completely disappeared. Certain ingredients used to
Speaker 1: be wild and other arm the way they taste has
Speaker 1: changed a lot. I mean it's it's changing rapidly and
Speaker 1: we need to find new ways. And in terms of cream.
Speaker 2: Do you miss any animal based products?
Speaker 1: I don't miss it at all.
Speaker 2: Isn't that great?
Speaker 1: I don't miss it at all. It's been so beautiful.
Speaker 1: And you know this is not like and butter.
Speaker 2: Do you cook with butter?
Speaker 1: We make our own butter. We make a sunflour out
Speaker 1: of sunflour oil. We make our own butter.
Speaker 2: What do you use for milk or cream we make?
Speaker 1: We use different not milks that we then ferment. You
Speaker 1: make your own and so we make this beautiful fermented
Speaker 1: almond milk that's unbelievable. We make our own cultured butter.
Speaker 1: We make these beautiful stocks of all these different vegetables.
Speaker 2: I love vegetables stack.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so incredible.
Speaker 2: When I peel my vegetables, it all goes into a rich,
Speaker 2: rich vegetable stuck. I don't miss I don't miss meat
Speaker 2: either when I'm when I'm not eating it.
Speaker 1: In terms of climate, and we're not anti meat but
Speaker 1: we are pro planet and in terms of for the
Speaker 1: betterment of the climate, the single most powerful thing an
Speaker 1: individual can do is to choose what's on your plate.
Speaker 1: And even if you eat vegetables like one day a
Speaker 1: week or two days a week, like, you don't need
Speaker 1: to go from all to nothing. But we need to
Speaker 1: adapt towards a more plant based diet. And you could
Speaker 1: arrive there in many different ways, Like you could arrive
Speaker 1: there for animal welfare, you could arrive there for farming practices,
Speaker 1: you could arrive there for health, you could drive there
Speaker 1: for climate. But the thing that you will not be
Speaker 1: able to escape is that we're actually running out of resources.
Speaker 1: There's a study that came out that I just read
Speaker 1: that said eighty percent of the farmland in the world
Speaker 1: is used for animal farms. It accounts for eleven percent
Speaker 1: of the calories. It's actually not an effective way to
Speaker 1: even feed the planet. In that same study, it's aid
Speaker 1: by twenty fifty we will need three planets to feed.
Speaker 2: The animals, to feed the animals that feed.
Speaker 1: Up exactly, so we cannot continue to get it the
Speaker 1: way we are. And the good news is vegetables are delicious, beautiful, healthier,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what we're here for to do.
Speaker 2: Daniel had never come to my farm before. And you walk,
Speaker 2: you walk by the chicken coops. I mean, I have
Speaker 2: beautiful chickens. They lay beautiful eggs, beautiful. The feed is
Speaker 2: atrociously expensive. It's very expensive. I value the eggs because
Speaker 2: they eat all the spent vegetables in the garden. I
Speaker 2: go to my vegetable market. Don't tell anybody, but I
Speaker 2: get crates of trimmings of the cantalopes and the melons,
Speaker 2: melons and watermelons for the chickens. And they love eating
Speaker 2: all that. They love it, and it does make better
Speaker 2: your eggs, right, But indeed, the cost of raising the
Speaker 2: chickens does not pay for the money I could get
Speaker 2: if I sold the eggs. It just doesn't know.
Speaker 1: And it's also, I mean, this is a very romantic
Speaker 1: way of how you.
Speaker 2: Live up, very romantic, but difficult.
Speaker 1: The quantities we need, it all becomes industrial and it's
Speaker 1: not realistic.
Speaker 2: And I can't visit a factory farm.
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't anymore. I've read all about it. Where did
Speaker 2: you get your knowledge about it? Just by Do you
Speaker 2: visit any of those factory farms.
Speaker 1: I have visited it some and you know, it's quite horrible,
Speaker 1: and you don't even need to dig that deep, like
Speaker 1: you see it very quickly, and it's really not something
Speaker 1: you really want to in.
Speaker 2: New York State, you see it one percent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And the cruelty of raising animals in that way too,
Speaker 2: it's just horrific. I agree. And that's why, you know,
Speaker 2: my diet has become less and less and less orientedreds
Speaker 2: of meat products and much more to vegetable.
Speaker 1: You know, we read about the chickens have bird flu,
Speaker 1: you know, that's the real thing. We read about the
Speaker 1: plastic in the ocean, that is a real thing. We
Speaker 1: read about the Amazon burning because of cows and land,
Speaker 1: and we read about all the antibiotics that's in these animals.
Speaker 1: And the truth is, even if you're a small restaurant,
Speaker 1: let's say you need you have forty guests, and you
Speaker 1: need forty chicken breasts, and that's a tiny restaurant, and
Speaker 1: that is twenty chickens. And so just imagine, like if
Speaker 1: a restaurant needs twenty chickens each day, now they need
Speaker 1: over one hundred chicken a week, that already is no
Speaker 1: more a small farm. No, So it's just not realistic.
Speaker 1: This idealic idea of like this little farm with the
Speaker 1: chicken coop is not a realistic one.
Speaker 2: What are you serving for Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1: This is another point. I think we have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to change traditions. We can honor the old traditions and
Speaker 1: still somehow have them with us, but traditions actually need
Speaker 1: to evolve. And I know, I love Thanksgiving, It's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite holidays. It's so beautiful.
Speaker 2: But are not squashes? Were looking really good.
Speaker 1: Isn't it. Why do we eat turkey? Like most people
Speaker 1: do actually not know why do we eat turkey? Most
Speaker 1: people don't even like turkey. Most turkey that's being served
Speaker 1: is anyway overcooked, And so forty five million turkeys are
Speaker 1: being slaughtered on Thanksgiving? Now just where are they? And
Speaker 1: I haven't seen a farm with like this kind of
Speaker 1: amounts of turkey. So I think we have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to change traditions and like beautiful stuffed squash with stuffing
Speaker 1: and like braced in the oven, and you can still
Speaker 1: have all the cranberries and all the side dishes. And
Speaker 1: that's what we're serving. That's what we're doing at the
Speaker 1: eleven Mudson Park.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's admirable and also different and also healthier, and
Speaker 2: you are helping change tradition. You are. So you start
Speaker 2: your farm, I have to come up and see your farm.
Speaker 2: How many acres of vegetables are you growing?
Speaker 1: We farm on six acres. We have more acres, but
Speaker 1: today we're farming on six acres. We have four greenhouses.
Speaker 1: About sixty percent of all our vegetables are from our
Speaker 1: own farm, and it's been incredible because we can influence
Speaker 1: what vegetables we're growing. But then we also bring the
Speaker 1: composts that we have in the restaurant goes back to
Speaker 1: the farm, and so we created this kind of circular
Speaker 1: system that's also much more sustainable. And it's been just
Speaker 1: a beautiful path. And we're celebrating twenty five years of
Speaker 1: the restaurant, but truthfully, I feel like we're at the
Speaker 1: very beginning. And it's so special to have this excitement
Speaker 1: for a restaurant that has been there twenty five years.
Speaker 1: I mean, this restaurant has been my life, but today
Speaker 1: I feel more excited about it than I have ever before.
Speaker 2: How many other vegan or vegetarian restaurants are there in
Speaker 2: New York. Has the number increased over the last ten years?
Speaker 1: Would you say definitely? Definitely. I mean it's definitely sprouting out,
Speaker 1: and there's new ones all the time. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, plant based cooking isn't isn't new. I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other cultures that have been doing
Speaker 1: this for many, many years. I mean I was just
Speaker 1: in India, and of course India forty percent of the
Speaker 1: population is vegetarian actually, and you know, of course other
Speaker 1: Middle East only forty. Yeah, but it's a lot, I
Speaker 1: mean in comparison to one percent in the US.
Speaker 2: Are we only one?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 2: What have you learned about cooking without animal products that
Speaker 2: would surprise us?
Speaker 1: Well? I think one thing is that people always teach you,
Speaker 1: or is being told, how much protein we actually need.
Speaker 1: We actually don't need as much proteins as people tell us.
Speaker 1: We actually need very little. And I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the protein can come with plant based cooking, from
Speaker 1: nuts and lentils and legumes and beans and so forth.
Speaker 1: And with that, I would recommend we actually use most
Speaker 1: nuts and most legumes that are all sprouted, because it's
Speaker 1: much more healthier and your body takes it in much
Speaker 1: more cooking plant based has also opened us up to
Speaker 1: the entire world as we're studying different cuisines like the
Speaker 1: sand Buddhist cuisine in Japan, or you know all the
Speaker 1: Middle Eastern countries which have this amazing, amazing, amazing cuisine India.
Speaker 1: I was saying, but but in a way, I feel
Speaker 1: much more free and much more opened to the world.
Speaker 1: It has also completely changed the audience that comes to
Speaker 1: a restaurant. Our audience is much younger today, Our audience
Speaker 1: is much more diverse. Our audience is much more thoughtful
Speaker 1: about the planet and not just about the indulgence of
Speaker 1: a of a luxurious meal.
Speaker 2: So you have a restaurant in Las Vegas that we
Speaker 2: have that in common. I have a restaurant in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had the Nomads and but actually right before
Speaker 1: the pandemic we were able to sell it and and
Speaker 1: we ended that.
Speaker 2: Because it was a beautiful restaurant.
Speaker 1: I loved it. It was great.
Speaker 2: I love the library feeling that in that restaurant. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the chef character in the TV showed the bear, did
Speaker 2: he really work and living as park?
Speaker 1: No, he never worked at eleven Madison Park. But you
Speaker 1: know what, I actually just recently watched the show, and
Speaker 1: I think it's so well done, and I think the
Speaker 1: acting in it is really unbelievable. There's second the first
Speaker 1: episode in the first season, in like one of the latest.
Speaker 2: Seasons, that restaurant drove me crazy. It was so dirty
Speaker 2: that restaurant.
Speaker 1: But there is this monologue scene where he speaks about
Speaker 1: all the pain and the creativity that comes from that,
Speaker 1: and I think that definitely kind of hit home. I
Speaker 1: think the show is super well done and there's definitely
Speaker 1: a lot of references on eleven Madison Park.
Speaker 2: Well, what's your favorite part of running a restaurant and
Speaker 2: what's your least favorite?
Speaker 1: My favorite part about running a restaurant is all the
Speaker 1: people that we get to be around, the people I
Speaker 1: get to work with every single day. Like the creativity.
Speaker 1: We get to do something creatively and collaboratively, and then
Speaker 1: we get to share that with all the beautiful people
Speaker 1: that come to experience it. I think there's so much
Speaker 1: life in that and there's such a beauty in that.
Speaker 1: I think that would be my favorite part.
Speaker 2: Can you reproduce eleven Madison Park the Vegan Restaurant elsewhere?
Speaker 1: You know? I think we definitely want to bring plant
Speaker 1: based eating into the world more than just with eleven
Speaker 1: Madison Park. Eleven Madison Park, there's only one in the world,
Speaker 1: and there will always only be one in the world.
Speaker 1: I think it is so special and we really have
Speaker 1: to protect it for what that is. It cannot be replicated,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, but there's definitely ways of, like, you know,
Speaker 1: creating a more casual version of a plant based restaurant
Speaker 1: that is definitely interesting to me.
Speaker 2: Well, this has been such an interesting conversation. I've learned
Speaker 2: a lot. I'm sure our listeners are just they can't
Speaker 2: wait to try your food, and I thank you, Martha.
Speaker 2: I think they can't wait to learn more about plant
Speaker 2: based eating. Yeah, and cooking, and you can get chef
Speaker 2: Whom's new book, Eat More Plants describe the book for everyone.
Speaker 1: So Eat More Plants was in a way never really
Speaker 1: meant to be a book. But I journal, and I
Speaker 1: draw and I paint, and during the pandemic I did
Speaker 1: a lot of that and it was all around my
Speaker 1: ideas about reopening plant based restaurants and about painting and
Speaker 1: drawing vegetables and sort of like really seeing this come
Speaker 1: to life. And this is how my creative process works,
Speaker 1: and I got to meet this incredible publisher called Gerhartstitle
Speaker 1: who has published some of the greatest art books like
Speaker 1: Ed Rushe or Richard Sarah or Joseph Boyce or Ronnie Horn.
Speaker 1: And one day he came to the restaurant and he
Speaker 1: was very touched by the meal, and he asked me,
Speaker 1: what is my creative process? And I told them, well,
Speaker 1: I journal, I draw, I write, And then he asked
Speaker 1: me if he could see those drawings and journals, and
Speaker 1: he came the next day to my office and he
Speaker 1: looked at everything and he said, I would love to
Speaker 1: publish a book on those. And it was a very
Speaker 1: vulnerable thing because none of the they're very intimate, and
Speaker 1: none of this was created to be ever seen by anyone,
Speaker 1: and so that was like a process, you know, to
Speaker 1: get there. But then I've spent a few weeks with
Speaker 1: Gerhardt in Gutting and Germany to create this book that
Speaker 1: today I'm very proud of, and it's a very intimate
Speaker 1: look into my creative process and the reimagination of Eleven Matterson.
Speaker 2: I'd like to read this one little sentence. What the
Speaker 2: pandemic has taught me is that purpose brings happiness. Winning
Speaker 2: awards is important, but it's not everything, and that's seems
Speaker 2: to be what you're living by right now. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just incredible, and page after page in this beautiful book,
Speaker 2: I could frame almost every single one of these and
Speaker 2: have a wall of your art. This is very interesting
Speaker 2: and beautiful.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: We have a unique platform at eleven Madison Park. It
Speaker 2: comes with a responsibility, so your philosophy is here and
Speaker 2: you must try very hard to visit eleven Madison Park
Speaker 2: when you're in New York City. Call far ahead for
Speaker 2: reservations and bring a fat pocket book because it's expensive.
Speaker 2: But I think you will enjoy the atmosphere, you will
Speaker 2: enjoy the service, and most of all, you will enjoy
Speaker 2: a plant based meal the likes of which you have
Speaker 2: never tasted. So thank you Chevulm. It's so nice to
Speaker 2: have you here.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Marta, what a pleasure. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you,