As Eleven Madison Park moves to reopen, the restaurant is expanding its reach in an unexpected way.
Starting on April 12, the Eleven Madison Truck will be deployed around New York City. It won't be serving to-go containers of its famed honey lavender roast duck, or anything else that might have featured on the restaurant's $335 tasting menu. Instead, the truck, from chef-owner Daniel Humm's partnership with the non-profit Rethink, will feed underserved food communities, starting in New York's Bronx.
“We had been brainstorming different ways to make the restaurant part of the community and get staff engaged beyond making meals and pushing them out of the door,” says Matt Jozwiak, co-founder and chief executive of Rethink. “And then Daniel called me and was, like, ‘Let’s do a food truck.’
Meals funded by restaurant diners
The handsome, royal blue, customised truck, emblazoned with the names Eleven Madison Truck and Rethink will serve around 400 meals a day for free. Operations will be paid for in large part by the restaurant’s diners; each Michelin three-star meal that’s sold guarantees five meals for Rethink. (Eleven Madison Park's to-go boxes, whose $275-plus price tags have raised eyebrows, generate 10 meals per order.)
The truck will be staffed by Rethink employees and Eleven Madison Park staff on a rotating basis. "For the kids who care hard about these issues, they will see it as a benefit," says Humm. Likewise, the restaurant will prioritise sympathetic suppliers. "We're going to ask them to give us some product for free for Rethink. We'll select our suppliers based on that," he says.
But it won’t be serving an elite kitchen’s version of what they think people want to eat. “Those neighbourhoods are not waiting for a bunch of white guys to show up in their hood and give out food,” says Humm.
Serving "greatest hits" in Brooklyn and the Bronx
“It will be a series of our greatest hits to start,” says pastry chef Laura Cronin, who has been a key part of Rethink’s meal production at the restaurant. “Chicken is, by far, the most popular protein.”
To begin with, the programme will offer the kind of meals that the restaurant's kitchen has been providing to first responders throughout the pandemic, including jerk chicken with roasted vegetables, gumbo-style chicken etouffée with rice, and grain bowls, along with vegetarian and other dietary options.
The EMP-Rethink team is also collaborating with local community boards in hopes of working with neighbourhood restaurants in the future. “We can have them come on the truck with their food,” says Cronin.
Jozwiak estimates that the project will cost about $16,000 a month to operate – not including the food, which will be made from leftover ingredients from Eleven Madison Park, as well as donated product.
Members of local community boards have signed on to manage lines that form and to help organise crowd control.
The truck's starting schedule will park it on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays at Bronx Collegiate Academy, on Tuesdays at St Mark's United Methodist Church in Brooklyn, and on Fridays back in the Bronx at the Mary Mitchell Family & Youth Center.
Eleven Madison Park to reopen in June
The truck helps Humm keep a commitment he made in 2020, while wondering whether he would relaunch his restaurant. "Any way that Eleven Madison Park 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 per cent any more ," he said in an interview with Bloomberg Pursuits in May 2020.
As for the reopening of Eleven Madison Park, Humm is shooting for Thursday, June10 and has eight chefs researching and developing the menu.
“We have everything in place.” He says that the restaurant will “still be fine dining – still be on the same level, the same price point. But a little bit different.” The 'EMP at Home' service will continue, even after the dining room is up and running.
Humm continues: “I come from looking at food in an artistic way. I love the art and performance of it. But I’m also wrestling with how many people don’t have access to it.” Combining Eleven Madison Park and Rethink made him realise that “food can be meaningful, on both levels. Now I can say that one can’t exist without the other.”
'Tell the Machine Goodnight' by Katie Williams
Penguin Randomhouse
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
Abu Dhabi race card
5pm Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige | Dh110,000 | 1,400m
5.30pm Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige | Dh110,000 | 1,400m
6pm Abu Dhabi Championship Listed | Dh180,000 | 1,600m
6.30pm Maiden | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
7pm Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap | Dh80,000 | 1,400m
7.30pm Handicap (TB) |Dh100,000 | 2,400m
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Hobby: Playing piano and drawing patterns
Best book: Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Food of choice: Sushi
Favourite colour: Orange
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Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
Pushkin Press
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
WHEN TO GO:
September to November or March to May; this is when visitors are most likely to see what they’ve come for.
WHERE TO STAY:
Meghauli Serai, A Taj Safari - Chitwan National Park resort (tajhotels.com) is a one-hour drive from Bharatpur Airport with stays costing from Dh1,396 per night, including taxes and breakfast. Return airport transfers cost from Dh661.
HOW TO GET THERE:
Etihad Airways regularly flies from Abu Dhabi to Kathmandu from around Dh1,500 per person return, including taxes. Buddha Air (buddhaair.com) and Yeti Airlines (yetiairlines.com) fly from Kathmandu to Bharatpur several times a day from about Dh660 return and the flight takes just 20 minutes. Driving is possible but the roads are hilly which means it will take you five or six hours to travel 148 kilometres.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Profile of Bitex UAE
Date of launch: November 2018
Founder: Monark Modi
Based: Business Bay, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: Eight employees
Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings
Mountain%20Boy
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UAE rugby in numbers
5 - Year sponsorship deal between Hesco and Jebel Ali Dragons
700 - Dubai Hurricanes had more than 700 playing members last season between their mini and youth, men's and women's teams
Dh600,000 - Dubai Exiles' budget for pitch and court hire next season, for their rugby, netball and cricket teams
Dh1.8m - Dubai Hurricanes' overall budget for next season
Dh2.8m - Dubai Exiles’ overall budget for next season
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
- 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
- 2nd Test India won by innings and 53 runs at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
Our legal advisor
Rasmi Ragy is a senior counsel at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Prosecutor in Egypt with more than 40 years experience across the GCC.
Education: Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1978.
