Chef Daniel Humm is one of the most renowned chefs in the city of New York. He is also the owner of Make It Nice, which is behind Eleven Madison Park, a fine dining, upscale restaurant located in the heart of New York.
Unfortunately, his restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, was forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 crisis. However, his kitchen is buzzing with activity even now: Humm has exploited this opportunity and turned his three-starred Michelin restaurant into a charity kitchen!
The cooks at his restaurant, which was named World’s Best Restaurant in 2017 by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, now prepare over 3,000 meals each day, serving frontline workers and the underprivileged in New York.
Collaborating with Rethink Food, a New York based charity that helps convert leftover food at restaurants into dishes for the less privileged and the disadvantaged, Humm and his team of cooks have prepared thousands of meals for the less fortunate and for healthcare workers.
He set up the charity kitchen using private donations, and an amount of $250,000 donated by American Express.
“When this crisis started happening and we had to turn off the lights for a minute, we were a little bit in shock like everyone was,” Humm said. “But then pretty quickly, we felt like we wanted to help in any way we can.”
“I had a person the other day who said, ‘Oh my God, this is the best meal I’ve ever had,'” said Humm. And we can only imagine how rewarding that might have been for the chef who earned his first Michelin star at the age of 24.
Humm says that he will continue cooking for the needy even after the pandemic!
“Food is magical, it’s so powerful,” he said. “I mean, there are very few things in the world that touch everyone.”
And we agree!
Kudos to the chef for touching so many hearts and souls across the world!
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