DANIEL HUMM AND WILL GUIDARA

[...]the Hudson Valley, New York-reared Guidara always knew he wanted to study hospitality at Cornell University, seduced by restaurants as a child because of his father, who held top positions at the likes of Wolfgang Puck Food Company (at 16, Guidara was a Spago busboy) and Restaurant Associates. By uniting imaginative but never pretentious tasting menus with a playful and engaging devotion to service, the two ambitious entrepreneurs transcended their goal to evolve Meyer's brasserie into "the 4-Star restaurant for our generation," as Guidara describes it, transforming Eleven Madison Park into one of the world's most important restaurants and clamored-for reservations. Fresh off the heels of a renovation from Allied Works, with Humm's dream kitchen and a dining room spruced up by works from artists including Rita Ackermann and Daniel Turner ("It's meant to be more timeless and reflect our style and personality today," Humm says), it continues to be a showcase for food that he says is delicious, beautiful, intentional, and creative.