Celebrity chef to the beautiful people is having trouble with his new NYC restaurant, though I can't imagine why
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the rest of us will just have to make do with our gates burgers
A $335 prix-fixe menu for the ordinary rich to buy and consume vegetables in public view of their peers, and a private, special room for the truly blessed, where meat can be consumed in private — how could this fail?
Even the NYT’s restaurant critic was not amused, though clearly, an ink-stained laborer of the people can hardly be expected to appreciate the finer things of life offered here:
New York Times critic Pete Wells' review last month went viral for its withering lines, including one about an EMP beet tasting like "a cross between lemon Pledge and a burning joint."
… And, importantly, he noted that through the end of this year, EMP still offers a meat option for customers who book a private dining room, a "metaphor for Manhattan, where there's always a higher level of luxury, a secret room where the rich eat roasted tenderloin while everybody else gets an eggplant canoe."
The Post has more of the story:
In 2019, shortly after it was announced that Humm and Guidara were splitting, it was revealed that Humm and Laurene Powell Jobs — the widow of Steve Jobs and a longtime vegan for the most part — were dating. She’s “allowed me to see myself more clearly, and I get to be more myself by knowing her,” Humm told Vanity Fair of their relationship. “She inspires me every day.” [She since left him for her personal trainer, alas]
Perhaps it was her influence that led to a shocking announcement in spring 2021: Humm would be reopening the restaurant with a fully vegan menu. “The current food system is simply not sustainable,”he told the New York Times.
I’m astonished that the 0.01%ers aren’t willing to endure inedible food for the pleasure of showing how special, woke, and rich they are, but according to the Post, the restaurant’s running at just 70% capacity these days, which must be alarming to the chef’s business partners. Sad.
