Daniel Humm's life changed forever on Wednesday night.

He hit the culinary jackpot when his New York restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, topped the World's 50 Best Restaurants list at an awards ceremony held at Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Buildings.

For Humm and his business partner Will Guidara, the accolade is recognition of years of hard work and sacrifice.

Born in Switzerland, Humm dropped out of school at the age of 14 to become a professional cyclist before turning to cooking.

Passion and suffering

Speaking to Fairfax Media at an event organised by Luke Mangan, American Express and the World's Best Chefs to encourage apprentice chefs, Humm says he struggled at school.

If you are really passionate about it then it means you are willing to suffer for it, otherwise it is just a hobby.

Chef Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Square.

"It was difficult for me in school as I feel like creativity is not something that was really appreciated," he says. "It was almost the opposite. Cooking has taught me everything. It is one of the very few professions where you don't need college degrees and all these degrees to be eventually successful."

Humm says aspiring chefs need to be prepared for long hours and low pay to start with.

"You have to feel really, really strongly about this path because it is super hard but every industry is hard," he says. "The problem with the cuisine is that it is paid very poorly early on. In German the world passion is called Leidenschaft and the translation of Leidenschaft really means enjoy suffering. If you are really passionate about it then it means you are willing to suffer for it, otherwise it is just a hobby."

Building a team

It wasn't a smooth journey to the number one spot for Humm with Eleven Madison Park struggling to attract diners in its early days and sometimes opening for only 10 bookings.

Humm kept his head down and worked hard to build a strong team in the kitchen.

"I don't even care if they have cooked before or where they have worked but I want to get to know the person," he says. "Cooking is not brain surgery. I can teach anything, it's not that hard if it's the right person."

Humm says the ongoing challenge is trying to keep staff motivated.

"You have to be creative," he says. "You have to think about 'Why do people want to work with us?' If people work with us we want to give them an education. We have a culture of leading but learning. I spend as much time thinking about how to motivate the team as I think about what to put on the plate."

Remuneration is also part of the package.

"We are in the process of figuring out how to pay cooks more because the wages for cooks in New York hasn't changed that much over the past few years but life has gotten a lot more expensive," he says.

Focusing on service

Humm is known in the industry for his humble demeanour and his advice to young chefs is "don't have an ego".

This has been key to Humm's success according to chef Ben Shewry whose restaurant, Attica, was awarded best restaurant in Australasia at the World's 50 Best Restaurant event.

"Daniel Humm has an ability to put his ego aside and allow the service to be as big a part as the food," Shewry says. "Chefs tend to think everything is about us. A more modest man like Daniel has enabled his restaurant to grow to the size it is at."

Shewry says Eleven Madison Park has some of the finest service he's ever encountered in a restaurant in the world.

"It comes down to the way the staff make you feel when you are there," he says. "It is a very warm place against perhaps the slightly harsher backdrop at times of New York City. It's like finding shelter in a storm. It's a very genuine feeling. It speaks to me with the connection and the desire to look after a person."

World class food

Shewry describes Eleven Madison Park as "a very impressive package".

"It's world-class food, wines and a beautiful dining room on Madison Park."

Humm draws on his classical training before reinventing and reinterpreting those techniques for dishes like his celery root in pig's bladder.

"You have got to be a student of cuisine," he says. "You have to know the rules before you can start breaking them."

Humm is constantly reinventing the menu at Eleven Madison Park and looks to art and his surrounds in New York for stimulus.

"I have every cookbook there is," he says. "Today my inspiration comes from other places."

Commercial appeal

Humm is pragmatic about the business of being a chef.

"You are not cooking for yourself you are cooking for your guests," he says. "You need to have a full restaurant to be eventually successful. If you have an empty restaurant you are never going to be a famous chef."

An empty restaurant is not likely to be a problem for Humm anytime soon. Eleven Madison Park is already one of the hardest restaurants in the world to get into and it's just got a whole lot harder.

When Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca topped the World's 50 Best Restaurant List in 2013 its website received 12 million hits and three extra employees were hired to deal with booking requests.

Ken Burgin of Profitable Hospitality predicts Eleven Madison Park will experience a "tidal wave" of bookings for its tasting menu which costs $US225 ($300) a person.

"All these people who normally wouldn't come to visit come with sky-high expectations and dying to find out why it shouldn't be number one," he says. "It's a case of managing those expectations."

Humm and Guidara are already looking to accommodate those people who can't get in with the expansion of the Eleven Madison Park brand through their NoMad restaurant in New York and an upcoming chain of casual restaurants.

The marketing machine

Amidst the hype, the World's 50 Best Restaurants list has its detractors.

The list is compiled by a panel of more than 1000 chefs, food writers and other experts from around the world but the catch is that these academy chairs must have eaten at the restaurant they voted for in the 18 months.

With last year's World's 50 Best Restaurants event held in New York, Humm has reaped the benefit of being able to showcase his skills to so many of the chairs.

"People are a little cynical," says Burgin. "But the selection process is a bit opaque. You need to have a very good marketing machine to support you."

For Humm, his success comes down to three words: make it nice.

This is the philosophy underpinning Eleven Madison Park.

"Make stands for the craft of cooking and nice is for the hospitality part," Humm says. "The excellence and the hospitality are equally important".

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