New York chef turns Michelin-starred eatery into charity kitchen in COVID-19 crisis

Chef and owner Daniel Humm poses in the shuttered dining room of Michelin starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID19) continues in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., May 20, 2020. Picture taken May 20, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, who is used to being paid for fine dining with exclusive black credit cards, says his richest reward during the COVID-19 crisis is the grateful smiles of poor New Yorkers fed by the Michelin three-starred restaurant he has turned into a charity kitchen.

Cooks at his Manhattan eatery, which was named World's Best Restaurant in 2017 by the World's 50 Best Restaurants Academy, are preparing 3,000 meals a day for frontline workers and underprivileged New Yorkers, most of them distributed at a Harlem church.