As weeks of restaurant closures turn into months, the dining landscape is markedly different now than at the start of stay-at-home orders in March.
After closing its doors mid-March, Eleven Madison Park, one of the world’s most renowned restaurants, is now questioning reopening after the coronavirus pandemic.
In a new interview with Bloomberg, Michelin-starred chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, who’s been using his posh kitchen to cook meals for first responders and those affected by the COVID-19 crisis, said that his restaurant might not reopen after the pandemic subsides.
“There is definitely a question mark over Eleven Madison Park—if it will reopen,” Humm told Bloomberg. “It will take millions of dollars to reopen. You have to bring back staff. I work with fancy equipment in a big space. I want to continue to cook with the most beautiful and precious ingredients in a creative way, but at the same time, it needs to make sense.”
He transformed Eleven Madison Park into a commissary kitchen producing 3,000 meals a day to feed the hungry, something he hopes to continue doing if and when the restaurant is able to reopen.
“The infrastructure to end hunger needs to come out of the restaurants,” he said. “Any way that EMP reopens and it’s like a blank canvas right now, we would need to redefine what luxury means — it will also be an opportunity to continue to feed people who don’t have anything. I don’t need to only feed the 1% anymore.”
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