How do you turn a great restaurant into a world beater? You find its muse. “One of the first reviews of Eleven Madison Park was really positive,” recalls owner and chef Daniel Humm. “But one of the lines was, ‘I wish this place had a little more Miles Davis.’ So we started researching Miles and we realised how groundbreaking he was and how every album was almost like the beginning of a new genre.” Thus inspired by the titan of 20th-century jazz, Humm and his brigade would take their art deco dining room, carved from the historic lobby of the MetLife building in New York’s Flatiron District to three Michelin stars and top spot of the 2017 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
As Humm’s career took off, so has the need for new muses. The restaurants that he and former business partner Will Guidara opened with NoMad Hotels are underscored by The Rolling Stones, while Made Nice, a counter-service spot, is represented by jazz musician and bandleader Jon Batiste. This month, the Swiss-born chef opens Davies And Brook in Claridge’s, where Radiohead will serve as its musical personification.
“Our musical inspirations are very much inward facing. It’s not something the guests will know,” explains Humm, on a brief visit to London to oversee the transformation of the hotel’s main dining room (last occupied by Simon Rogan’s Fera). Nevertheless, it’s clear that this time the choice is personal. “Claridge’s has obviously been part of many people’s lives and stories, but it’s also been a very big part of mine. It’s 25 years since I worked here as a prep cook. And when I worked here all those years ago, Radiohead had Pablo Honey out and that was my album.”
In addition to establishing its musical mood music, Humm assigns each restaurant eleven words that define their approach; for Davies And Brook, which will combine fine dining with a cocktail lounge, the most important is “generational”. “Because for me that’s what Claridge’s is about. I want to be the restaurant that can capture a lot of different generations.”
Humm’s signature duck with daikon and plum dish
And then there’s the “four fundamentals” he’s devised to direct not only the component of every dish but its purpose. “They are all equally important, but the first one is the most important,” says Humm. “Firstly, the dish has to be delicious. And deliciousness isn’t something you should have to think about. Then it has to be beautiful. I’m looking for an effortless beauty, a minimalist beauty. The third one is creativity. I really want to add something to the conversation; it could be a new technique, an element of surprise or a new flavour combination, but it has to add something. And the last one is intention. There has to be a reason why we’re doing this. There needs to be story and it needs to make sense. It can’t just be a random thing.
“The four aren’t really friends, but if we pay attention to all of them that’s the cuisine we want. And in a weird way they have also become the way I want to live my life. I found my cuisine through it and I feel like I found myself through it. I want to live a delicious, beautiful, creative, intentional life.”
Numerologists will doubtless have a field day; meanwhile, clued-in diners are keen to know how much of Eleven Park Madison will make it over the Atlantic. “We are bringing elements,” says Humm, citing a signature duck with daikon and plum dish. Add the architects Allied Works, who did the 2017 refurb that featured in the Netflix series 7 Days Out, and a deep bench of EMP talent, including chef de cuisine Dmitri Magi and bar director Leo Robitschek, and it’s clear DAB (as Davies And Brook will surely become known) will keep the refinement while dialling up the accessibility. “Because that’s what most people want these days. It’s hard to be in a meal for four hours. How many times a year do you want that? I don’t want it that often.”
Maintaining an artful reticence surrounding EMP’s bulging reservations book of starry admirers (Jimmy Fallon calls Humm a “genius”) the chef’s easy-going air and dressed-down demeanour belies a fierce determination. He quit school at 14 and took a job in a kitchen to finance competitive cycling (he quit following a crash) and attributes his current success (there’s another project underway at 425 Park Avenue in New York to be unveiled next year) to another signature dish, solely comprising celery root and truffle.
“I’ve always tried to cook in a minimal way, but early on it was impossible. I’d put two things on a plate but think, ‘No one is going to think that’s life changing…’ so I’d add a garnish and another element to impress. And then three years ago I created a dish for the first time, which was like, ‘Wow. I think I’ve done it now.’” Since when, he says, it’s all about “wanting to strip away more: fewer courses, less interaction with the server, a lot of the formality. Miles Davis said, ‘Sometimes you have to play for a long time to be able to play like yourself.’ That’s really how I feel.”
Davies And Brook, Claridge’s, Brook Street, London W1.
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