What Inspired Daniel Humm To Create A Meal Delivery Kit
One of New York City's most acclaimed restaurants, Eleven Madison Park, has undergone some major changes since the start of the pandemic. Namely, the Michelin 3-star restaurant switched to an entirely plant-based menu. Now, chef and owner Daniel Humm has announced the launch of Eleven Madison Home, a meal delivery kit designed to get people to eat more plants.
According to its website, the weekly subscription-based service provides a complete day's worth of vegan meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and snacks. Currently, Eleven Madison Home is only available in New York City zip codes with a weekly cost of $150 to feed one person and $285 for two. While the price certainly isn't cheap, each box comes filled with dishes that are ready-to-eat or which require minimal preparation, fresh produce, and specialty goods from other vendors. Plus, the contents of every box changes from week to week, meaning you'll get a new experience and menu with each delivery.
One week's box includes items like "whole-grain oatmeal with rhubarb compote [and] roasted pecan butter" for breakfast and "mushroom kebab with Israeli couscous [and] roasted carrots" for dinner.
What inspired Humm to create Eleven Madison Home?
In a recent segment on "The Tonight Show," Humm chatted about the new service with Jimmy Fallon. Specifically, Humm explained that the idea for a plant-based meal kit came in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, after he transformed Eleven Madison Park into a community kitchen to serve food-insecure New Yorkers.
"It was really satisfying, and I reconnected with food in a way I wasn't connected to in a very long time and I realized that food can make change and that food is my language," explained Humm. "So when it was time to reopen the restaurant, for me, it was crystal-clear that the future was plant-based."
Offering an entirely plant-based menu at Eleven Madison Park was a huge step — but according to Humm, there was more work to be done. Eleven Madison Home brings vegan foods into people's own homes, with a mission to get them to eat a plant-based diet just one day per week. "We can all make a change, one day a week, and it will make a huge change on the planet," he said.