Daniel Humm partners with distributors around the globe

Nation's Restaurant News,  April 9, 2007  by Caroline Perkins

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Daniel Humm began his journey toward becoming a chef at the age of 14. Although his father had hoped he would follow in his footsteps as an architect, Humm wanted to cook. He started as a culinary apprentice in his native country of Switzerland. Today he is the executive chef at Eleven Madison Park in New York. Following his early apprenticeship, Humm worked at a number of Swiss hotels and restaurants, developing his own interpretation of the cuisine of Provence. He came to the United States in 2003 to be the executive chef at Campton Place in San Francisco. Over the next two years, he gained culinary attention there and won a number of honors, including being nominated twice for the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef award. He moved to his present position in 2006.

Eleven Madison Park, which is one of Danny Meyer's restaurants, is known for its elegant menu featuring fresh, seasonal dishes. Finding the ingredients for this kind of menu requires having a number of relationships with specialty distributors. For Humm, this means both locally and around the world.

What do you look for in a distributor relationship?

I need to feel comfortable with a distributor's ability to provide the quality I want. For instance, I still buy from a farmer in California for the duck we use. I'm happy with the quality of his game. It's shipped to us by air. The relationship is important. If you have a good one, you will hold onto it.

What other products do you source outside of New York?

I get wild game from Scotland, particularly wild boar and pheasant. I also get live langostinos from there, if I have a long relationship with a supplier, it doesn't matter where they are.

How many distributors do you use?

We have between 40 and 50 suppliers. That sounds like a lot, but sometimes we only buy one item from a supplier. We have five distributors just for fish.

What kind of problems do you run into?

We have very high standards for quality. If it's not 100 percent, we have to send the product back, which is really annoying. It's a full-time job just to check quality.

With that many suppliers, you must have to divide up the purchasing process.

Yes, we have one buyer for dry goods, vegetables and fruit, another for proteins and another for cheese.

Do salesmen visit you in the restaurant?

Occasionally. We do a lot of buying over the phone. We change our menu every day so we like to know what's fresh and what's coming up.

What great things do your distributors do for you?

If we need something in a hurry or have run out of something, they will get it to us quickly. Most of them donate products when we do a charity event.

Dairyland in the Bronx, one of our regular suppliers, is very generous that way. Some of our suppliers grow things specifically for us. They all do great things.

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