Down to a fine art

Daniel Humm's love for art couldn't be contained on paper or even in a regular kitchen. His food takes plant-based eating to the next level, a Michelin-studded one

- VIR SANGHVI

Are chefs artists? I first asked his question five years ago. Then, as now, the question emerged out of a conversation with Daniel Humm.

If you are a foodie, you will know who Humm is. Swiss by birth, New Yorker by choice, he is the greatest chef in America. His Eleven Madison Park has been awarded four stars by The New York Times and has held three Michelin stars for over a dozen years.

Humm started in the business at 14, won his first Michelin star in his 20s and is the only chef to have his restaurant go from one star to three without the intervening stage of two stars.

That Humm is a great chef is not in dispute. But is he an artist?

He sees himself as a craftsman and is too modest to call what he does art.

And yet, I think he is an artist.

Some of it has to do with how important art is to him. When he was a boy, his parents took him to a museum in Paris. When Humm saw Monet's Water Lilies series, he stopped in front of the paintings and wept. "I don't know if I was crying because I was happy or because I was sad. I just couldn't stop. There was an emotional impact that I did not fully understand."