“In San Francisco I was on top of the game,”chef Daniel Humm said the other day. “But I have so much energy. On top, you’re not pushed and I love the challenge.”At the jewel box restaurant Campton Place, in the San Francisco hotel of the same name, Mr. Humm was one of only seven chefs to receive a four-star rating from the San Francisco Chronicle last year, sharing the list with Thomas Keller and Alice Waters. In 2004 the Chronicle named him a rising star. In 2005 Food & Wine Magazine named him one of the best new chefs of the year. At 29, he’d become one of the top chefs in the Bay Area, which, via critical extrapolation, made him arguably one of the best chefs in the country.

So it came as a surprise when he announced in December last year that New Year’s Eve would be his last night, and that he would be heading for New York City to Eleven Madison Park.”I thought I had nothing to lose,” he said, reflecting on the decision. “If I don’t like it, I can always go back.”

“New York has always had a powerful magnetic attraction to achievers in every field. Everyone is here by choice,” Danny Meyer, whose Union Square Hospitality Group counts Eleven Madison Park among its 11 restaurant holdings, said of Mr. Humm’s move. The restaurant, which opened in 1998, is a historic New York building on a large scale. Metropolitan Life once held their morning assemblies in what is now the dining room. It was the grandiose size and decor of the space that inspired Mr. Meyer to open a brasserie there. The restaurant is not a traditional French spot, but it has the brasserie spirit in that it’s a large restaurant that makes great dishes made for daily eating. Eight years later, “we’re taking a look at everything,” Mr. Meyer said.”How do we realize the full potential of Eleven Madison Park?”

Part of that potential lies in the hands of Mr. Humm. He’s been quietly working there since mid-February, replacing chef Kerry Heffernan, who left to open Union Square Hospitality Group’s Hudson Yards Catering and later struck out on his own. Mr. Humm has been changing menu items, service ideas, lighting, table numbers, glassware, and cutlery. “The tools you’re eating with are the most important things,” he said.

There is a difference in scope between his two restaurants that requires new culinary calculations. At Campton Place, the staff of 60 served 65 guests. At Eleven Madison Park, more than 130 staff work in a restaurant with 150 seats. He says “Less is more, and [I use] perhaps fewer elements on the plate” compared to the West coast. But otherwise his French-based, Mediterranean-influenced cooking – dishes include crayfish with cumin-scented carrots and a pea vinaigrette, and cylinders of beets and spiced apples in a spring salad – will not change very much. Geography may wield an influence, however: “It’s very exciting being closer to Europe because it’s easier to get certain ingredients, like vin jaune and cheeses from Switzerland.”

Mr. Humm moved from his native Switzerland at 24, after guiding the restaurant Gasthaus zum Gupf in the Swiss Alps to a Michelin Star. He found the Californian pace of eating speedy by comparison.”They [Californians] wanted a tasting menu in an hour and a half,” Mr. Humm said. “I tried to slow things down, sending out hors d’ouevers to get people in the mood. In the end it worked out well.” So far the New York challenge has been remaking a restaurant while it’s still open. As Mr. Meyer often says, “It’s like changing the wheels on a train while it’s in motion.”

After that, it’s just good old-fashioned hopes and dreams.”I want to be one of the best restaurants in New York, make a difference and be a part of it,” Mr. Humm said. He doesn’t mean he has to get the most stars or be named the best chef. He wants to create “just, you know, a good place people like.” And is he ready for his closeup with all of New York City’s critics? “You never feel ready. You can always improve. And you should always feel that way.”