Single Thread and Eleven Madison Park's Bold Statement About the Future of Fine Dining

Three-Michelin-starred chefs are like snow leopards—it’s rare they encounter their own kind in the wild (maybe even more unusual considering only 13 restaurants in the U.S. hold three stars). So when Sonoma’s Single Thread announced a plant-based collaborative dinner with New York City’s Eleven Madison Park, it was destined to be special.

Helmed by Chef Kyle Connaughton in partnership with his wife, Katina, Single Thread has been a beacon for farm-forward cuisine since opening in 2016, amassing accolades from prestigious organizations, from The Michelin Guide to World’s 50 Best to La Liste. (Michelin announced Single Thread retained its three stars during the California awards ceremony this past month.) 

Situated on a quaint street in Healdsburg, the restaurant melds the calming energy of a Japanese ryokan with the agricultural values that make California Wine Country one of the most revered culinary regions in the world. (Five of those 13 three-star kitchens are clustered in the Bay Area.)

Single Thread’s DNA is a direct reflection of Connaughton, a self-professed Japanophile who cut his teeth in renowned mainstays such as Heston Blumenthal’s English institution The Fat Duck and Wolfgang Puck’s seminal Spago in L.A. Along the way, Connaughton worked for Michel Bras in the scallop capital of Hokkaido, while Katina honed her craft in sustainable agriculture and English and Japanese gardens. At Single Thread, her enrapturing floral arrangements festoon the meditative interiors designed by hospitality gurus Avroko.

The couple’s reverence for Japanese culture shows up in the details: fire-glazed ceramics from Iga and personal tributes like Connaughton’s neck-to-toe tattoo body suit called soushinbori. Every night in the open kitchen at Single Thread, guests will find Connaughton meticulously preparing the evening’s menu—a celebration of Northern California’s micro-seasons and the principles of kaiseki, Japan’s traditional multi-course dining ritual—using ingredients from the restaurant’s 24-acre farm down the road. One of the most striking aspects of Single Thread is Connaughton’s Zen-like presence, which reverberates through the dining room and influences his tight-knit team, single-handedly shattering the aggro-chef stereotype. Seriously, dude is chill.

In Daniel Humm, Connaughton found a kindred spirit—or perhaps a weary soul in search of friendly company. “It’s a small world in what we do, and we have a mutual appreciation for each other,” Connaughton says. “We’re both chefs who are really focused on vegetables and produce. Even though Single Thread isn’t typically all plant-based, every dish starts with the story—what’s coming from the farm—and we build around it.”

Before attending the two-night dinner, I hadn’t crossed paths with Humm since 2017, when he graced Surface’s Art Issue cover. He was fresh off a career-altering peak, thanks to Eleven Madison Park’s elevation to the top spot in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards. We drifted around the exhibition spaces at the Dia Beacon museum, in New York’s Hudson Valley, discussing life and the impact of contemporary art on the evolution of his cooking, an obsession with deconstruction that propelled him to the highest echelons of the industry.

A central theme we returned to again and again during our day together was his passion for reinvention, never standing still for too long. At the time, he was preparing to close EMP for a makeover. Something he said to me proved prescient in the events that would follow. “You have to break it to move on, you have to turn it upside down,” he said. “We have this beautiful piece for the hors d’oeuvres, and that’s the right way to start a meal. But in three years, if you come back and that’s still how the meal starts, it’s over.”

I watched from afar as Humm parted ways with longtime partner Will Guidara, master of front-of-house ceremonies, then shocked the culinary world in 2021 when he announced that Eleven Madison Park was going fully vegan—a decision he characterizes as a moral obligation given the overconsumption of meat and its effect on global health and climate. “We’re not anti-meat, we’re pro-planet,” he declared. 

It didn’t go over well. Though the media acknowledged the boldness of the decision to subvert the raison d’être of fine dining, he was pilloried for it. Former New York Times critic Pete Wells said Humm was doing “strange things to vegetables” in a damning review. After refusing to adopt his newfound ethos at the newly opened Davies and Brook, London’s storied five-star hotel Claridge’s parted ways with the chef. Rumors of a “secret beef room” swirled as Humm’s private life was gossiped about. Combined with the challenges of the pandemic, the plant-based backlash became financially existential. 

Then, in 2023, Humm was vindicated when EMP became the first vegan restaurant to win three Michelin stars. “This collaboration was about showcasing our approach to produce but also supporting the big shift Daniel made by going plant-based,” Connaughton says. “We wanted to show solidarity, to send a message that we’re trying to change the nature of fine dining.” While Single Thread serves protein, predominantly seafood, in its rotating 11-course menu of small plates, the vegetable program takes center stage.

The commitment to regenerative agriculture is apparent at the biodynamic farm in nearby Dry Creek Valley, comprised of vineyards, loamy fields, and an heirloom fruit orchard. The work there has earned Single Thread a Green Michelin Star as well as three Snails from the Slow Food Movement. “It’s not about flying in ingredients from all over the world anymore—it’s about focusing on what’s local and sustainable, and changing the perception of value for the guest,” Connaughton says.

The menu served over two nights was a tribute to Sonoma’s late-summer harvest and Humm and Connaughton’s shared values. It was also a glimpse into the produce-centric possibilities awaiting fine dining. The opening amuse-bouche presentation was served atop an immaculate botanical grandstand. The tomato course drew from more than 30 varieties grown on the farm and included everything from infused water to a radiant tostada to chunky gazpacho. The berries and cream dessert featured mochi, cherry blossom, and strawberry, but it was the dairyless cream that wowed thanks to its remarkable resemblance to the real thing in both style and substance.

I spoke with Humm upstairs in one of Single Thread’s offices-turned-content-studio as an eccentric photographer named Trox shot the 17-course capsule menu. Staff from both teams shuffled in and out of the room, laughing, sipping IWA 5 sake, and nibbling fresh tamales from a local purveyor. Humm was tired but happy, demonstrating the relief of someone who was exiled to the desert and happened upon a welcoming refuge.

“It’s not really about business or marketing. On a chef level, it’s more about friendship, hanging out, learning from each other, and stepping into someone else’s world. You get to feel a different energy, which is evolutionary. It’s inspiring to see how someone else works and to be able to immerse yourself in their space for a few days,” he says while leaning back in a swivel chair. “It’s like a fraternity.”

Humm will soon unveil Bar Clemente, a new cocktail lounge with Italian painter Francesco Clemente, and a yet-to-be-named restaurant in the West Village. The menu will be plant-forward though it will include some animal protein. “EMP is the haute couture,” he says of the decision to serve meat. “It’s meant to inform ready-to-wear, not create exact replicas.”