The thing about being a beloved institution is that you become institutional. Restaurants that once set trends often grow gauche and tired. Then there’s Eleven Madison Park, the industry-wide tastemaker that was named the world’s best restaurant in 2017 and celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. In 2021, after a pandemic-era sabbatical, EMP stunned the culinary world when owner and chef Daniel Humm announced that the restaurant would be reopening as a “99.99%” vegan establishment. (Meat dishes were still available as a private dining option.)

Amid the drastic shift, EMP remains a favored hub of Manhattan’s elite and gastroheads the world over, lauded for its innovation, strict attention to detail, and unparalleled hospitality (see: “dreamweavers”). 

To celebrate 25 years, the restaurant created a retrospective tasting menu: a vegan reimagining of courses that, over the years, defined EMP. EMP’s wine director Gabriel Di Bella joined us to break down the pairings he selected from the restaurant’s renowned wine list for this special menu, with callouts to the years those dishes appeared at EMP.

Dishes: Black & White Cookies (2012), Hors d’Oeuvre Tower (2016)

Pairing: 2015 Dunoyer de Segonzac Blanc de Blancs Champagne

Reserve Pairing: NV Georges Laval Garennes Champagne

The easy and the most versatile way to start is definitely pushing the Champagne cart and having the guest enjoy a glass.

In this hors d’oeuvre tower, you have compressed apple, you have mushroom, black truffle tarts — a lot of very complex and very flavorful bites to start with. The idea was to have something really precise. A lot of minerality in the wine. That's why we go for a blanc de blancs. We want a little bit more of this freshness but also a little bit more age, and a little bit more texture still driven by the acidity. The idea is to have a pairing that's a stage for the food to shine, so you can move to the next bite confidently and have a refreshed palate with every single sip you're taking.

At the opposite, in a way: Georges Laval. Much more texture, a bit more complexity, and aromatic. This is playing with the dishes and seeing how that will play with the mushroom, the turnip, the acidity of the compressed apple — all those things.

Dish: Carrot Tartare with Rye, Mustard and Horseradish (2012)

Pairing: 2022 Weingut Jäger Steinriegl Wachau Riesling Federspiel

Reserve Pairing: 2020 J.J. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Mosel Riesling Kabinett (in magnum)

The carrot tartare is the iconic dish of Eleven Madison Park. It's a fun dish for guests to enjoy because there's so much interactivity to it. They can play with it. They can just dump everything onto the counter and mix it up. You're going to add a little bit of mustard to it. You're going to add a little bit of olive oil to it. There are puff millets. There are so many condiments that are going to bring texture and flavor to the carrot tartare. So you end up with this delicious, full-of-texture dish.

The idea is to have these high acid-driven wines that are going to match the texture of the tartare and a lot of freshness to balance the texture. The texture is what I wanted to focus on with this pairing, more than the aromatics. It was very much a tactile pairing more than anything else.

We have two amazing producers. J.J. Prüm — a ton of acidity and a ton of freshness in those wines. We go for Kabinett to capitalize on this freshness. The same when it comes to Austria, going for Federspiel: something a little lighter, a little fresher, a little bit more vivid on the palate.

Dishes: Laminated Bread and Sunflower Butter (2010), Tonburi with Avocado, Cucumber and Mint (2023)

Pairing: 2021 Clos des Lunes Lune d’Argent Bordeaux

Reserve Pairing: 2021 Vigneti Massa Derthona Timorasso

Tonburi is an amazing ingredient that we've been using since we reopened. It’s these little seeds coming from a small tree in Japan called the summer cypress tree. We harvest them, and then they are dried and seasoned with seaweed.

In Japan, tonburi seeds are nicknamed “the caviar of the land.” They really pop like fish eggs. Then you have the seaweed that brings this iodine saltiness, and we pair that with avocado, a cucumber salad underneath, and a fermented mint juice.

It's a fairly intense, aromatic dish. The sauce brings so much intensity that we really need white wine — two different wines, but the same mindset behind them when it comes to the pairing. Clos des Lunes is a white Bordeaux, a category that I absolutely love. The Sauvignon Blanc brings you those herbal, fresh flavors, but at the same time, it's powerful and intense. You have such a beautiful acidity that it’s going to balance the texture of the avocado. That's going to give you a lot of richness, and a little bit of fatness on the palate.

White Italian wines are a bit of an underrated category, and Vigneti Massa is an absolutely stunning producer. This really has depth and almost this umami flavor that you often find in a Northern Italian white, which is really interesting to pair with the saltiness and the texture of the tonburi.

Dish: Tortellini with White Truffle and Chestnut (2009)

Pairing: 2020 Enfield Wine Co. Watson Ranch Napa Valley Chardonnay

Reserve Pairing: 2020 Domaine Vocoret & Fils Montée de Tonnerre Chablis Premier Cru

This is also an iconic dish. It was in Chef Humm’s first cookbook. There are really only two ways to play with white truffle. We could stick with Nebbiolo and stick to the regional pairing, but we wanted more freshness and we didn't want to move to red wine that soon. We wanted to keep on building the momentum of wine after wine, so we wanted a white wine that would have a lot of texture and a lot of richness. 

This is the opposite of what you would expect of a Californian Chardonnay. It's not buttery. You have so much freshness and elegance to it, and at the same time, you still have the comforting aspect of California Chardonnay. What you want to play on in this pairing is the pasta’s taste and texture. They are filled with an almond ricotta, so they bring this creaminess that's going to be great with a nicely ripe Chardonnay. But you also want this acidity to keep things going linear, and not something that's too opulent and will take over your entire palate. 

Same when it comes to Burgundy. The choice to go for Chablis was pretty obvious. We wanted a Chablis with texture, with a little bit more depth. But at the same time, Chablis naturally has this minerality-driven style — and that was an obvious pairing, and an obvious side-by-side with the other one. 

Dish: Cauliflower with Golden Raisin and Vadouvan Curry (2014)

Pairing: 2023 Weiss Ferments Chit Notes EMP 25th Anniversary Spelt Weizen Farmhouse Ale

Reserve Pairing: 2018 M. Chapoutier Chante-Alouette Hermitage

Cauliflower is one of the most difficult dishes that we have to work with. This dish is all about the amount of technique we can put in a single dish, the different ways we can prepare a single ingredient and how many different ingredients we can incorporate into each other to bring a dish that's balanced, complete, and absolutely delicious. At first, it was a little tricky to find a way to play with that concept. But it turns out that one of our former sommeliers at Eleven Madison Park, Erica O’Neal, makes beer in upstate New York. 

Once we started to talk about pairing a beer, it was an obvious choice just to go to her and say, “Hey, we have this idea. What can you do for us?” And she was like, “I'm about to do a bottling of a farmhouse. I'm more than happy to do a special bottling just for you guys.” It's really amazing to have this — the flavor and the roundness of the beer, but also something pretty sharp on the palate that can play with a very textural, spicy, intense dish. That was the idea, and it breaks up a long line of wine. 

On the other hand, Michel Chapoutier’s Hermitage. One of the most iconic producers of the Northern Rhône. When we hear the word Hermitage, most of the time it's red. But those white Hermitages are such stunning wines, and especially Chante-Alouette. You get into a pure expression of Marsanne, with all the oiliness and the richness to it, while — even in 2018 — managing to keep acidity and freshness to balance that out, and avoid something that's too flabby. You get a little bit of sweetness from the golden raisin and you get the richness and this opulent, round texture from the Hermitage.

Dish: Celery Root with Black Truffle (2015)

Pairing: 2018 Domaine Henri Prudhon & Fils Les Chambres Chassagne-Montrachet

Reserve Pairing: 2009 Arpepe Inferno Sesto Canto Valtellina Superiore Riserva

The celery root is very much the opposite of the cauliflower. Those two dishes show the top of the mountain of one era, when Chef Humm was doing a lot of texture and a lot of technique, to another. 

We came up with four words that are non-negotiable to describe that. Has to be delicious, obviously. Has to be intentional, so it needs to have a story behind it. It needs to be creative—something we haven't seen before. Then it needs to be beautiful. 

When you see the dish, you have the celery root, which is a tiny bowl on one side of the plate. On the other side of the plate, you have a round puree of celery. Hidden underneath the puree, which is white, you have a black truffle puree. Then the celery root is covered up with a black truffle sauce. So you end up with this white plate with a white dot and a red and a black dot on the other side. It's very much about going back to the essentials of what the dish should be, and what we want it to be. 

When it comes to the pairing, we wanted wine that was, in a way, a little naked. A Pinot that would be really pure Pinot, very delicious, almost juicy, although you want a little bit of earthy, mushroomy flavors. We stick to Chassagne-Montrachet to have something a little lighter, a little fresher, with a little bit more acidity. 

Then Arpepe, which is one of the most iconic estates in Valtellina. You feel the rusticity of Nebbiolo in those wines. They have so much depth, tannins are definitely present, the beautiful acidity and the flavors of Nebbiolo aging, these truffley flavors coming through. And the earthiness. You almost feel like you're walking in a forest just after rain.

Dish: Grilled Maitake Mushroom with Juniper and Pine (2022)

Pairing: 2021 Domaine Monier Perréol Saint-Joseph

Reserve Pairing: 1998 Giorgio Pelissero Vanotu Barbaresco (in magnum)

This is a dish of the new era. With the grilled maitake mushroom, we're looking at finding wine that will bring freshness, but really dark black flavors, mushroomy flavors. Syrah was a no-brainer.

We have probably three pages of Monier Perréol on our list. That's how much we love this estate. It’s such an amazing expression of Syrah — you have this animal characteristic coming through, a lot of spiciness and black pepper flavors. That's so iconic to the Northern Rhône Syrah, and really interesting to play with. The Syrah is very pure, very delicate, and still has power to it. 

On the reserve pairing, we could not celebrate 25 years without celebrating the vintage of when we started, in 1998. So Pelissero in magnum — a beautiful bottle of Barbaresco. A really mature Nebbiolo showing this forest, a little bit truffley, and a very elegant wine at the same time. You had 25 years to decrease the level of acidity, and you end up with something that's really balanced, extremely delicate and complex.

Dish: Apple Doughnut with Cinnamon Ice Cream (2017)

Pairing: 2009 Donatella Cinelli Colombini Vin Santo del Chianti

Reserve Pairing: 2017 Klein Constantia Vin de Constance, Constantia, South Africa

One of my favorite desserts of all time is this warm apple donut with cinnamon ice cream on the side. You eat this regardless, if you are hungry or not. It's just so good. I don't have the word in English, but in French, we would say that it's gourmandise — you can't resist!

We use a lot of Granny Smith for the donut. It has a ton of acidity, so even though it's a very rich, sweet dessert, it has a ton of acidity as well. It ends up being really balanced. The idea of the wine pairing was in the same vein. We wanted a wine that would be generous, complex and have a sweet richness to it while still having a ton of acidity to avoid something too intense. 

Vin Santo: super traditional, super classic. Those kinds of wine where the dessert can be cleared and you're going to keep your glass of wine and sip on it. The Italians call this “meditation wine.” It just creates this context of hominess. It's super comforting. 

On the other hand, we have a very traditional but not necessarily super well-known appellation: Klein Constantia from South Africa. It goes all the way back to the era of Napoleon. It's definitely an iconic and historical wine, with all the generosity and all this deliciousness that the Muscat grape can provide. It's full of a ripe apple flavor and pear. You have a bit of those greenish, citrusy flavors that balance it out. Definitely a more complex wine, but also such an amazing way to finish the meal.