Will Guidara is the author of the New York Times bestseller Unreasonable Hospitality, which chronicles the lessons in service and leadership he has learned over the course of his career in restaurants.
He is the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park. Under his leadership, EMP received four stars from the New York Times, three Michelin stars, and in 2017 was named #1 on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Will is the host of the Welcome Conference, an annual hospitality symposium that brings together like-minded people to share ideas, inspire one another, and connect to form community.
He is also a co-producer on the Emmy award winning FX series The Bear. Unreasonable Hospitality is featured in the second season when the character Richie reads it in the episode “Forks“. Guidara later received story credit for the third episode of the third season alongside series creator Christopher Storer, and appears as himself in the third-season finale alongside his wife, Christina Tosi.
Words from Will:
Will at Nomad Line-up
My dad, a lifelong restaurateur, was my hero growing up. My mom became a quadriplegic when I was young, and in addition to working restaurant hours, he always managed to take care of her and still found the time to be an amazing father to me. I was always in awe of him, and from an early age, I wanted to be just like him. It didn’t matter what he did for a living, that’s what I wanted to do. It just so happened that I fell in love with the thing that he did… I fell in love with restaurants. By the age of 12 – and he has proof of this in a to-do list I wrote back then – I knew I wanted to go to Cornell University to study hospitality, and to open my own restaurant in New York City.
He stayed very involved with my career after graduation, helping me pick every job, always in an effort to ensure that I built the strongest foundation possible from which to grow. I worked for Drew Nieporent, Wolfgang Puck, Restaurant Associates, and Danny Meyer- ultimately landing the job as general manager of Eleven Madison Park, the restaurant that I purchased in 2011.
That restaurant was where I truly found my voice and was able to make my impact on the world of fine dining. In 11 years there, we were able to evolve the restaurant from being a two-star brasserie into the number one restaurant in the world. But that evolution wasn’t because of the excellence of our product, it was because of our relentless focus on hospitality. It came through our choice to be as unreasonable in pursuit of how we were making people feel as most other fine dining restaurants were purely in pursuit of the food they were serving.
In the beginning of 2020, I sold the company and finally had some time on my hands. Then Covid hit, and I had even more time on my hands! That’s when I decided to write Unreasonable Hospitality. First, because I’ve been blessed to have learned from some amazing mentors over the course of my career, and I really wanted to pay forward all the knowledge that I gathered. But also because my dad has always told me that the best way to learn is to teach, and I wanted to force myself to articulate all of my beliefs so that I’d be able to embody them more effectively going forward.
I don’t own or operate any restaurants right now; my world is consumed with writing books, making television, and leading a team that does consulting and training workshops. But restaurants will always be in my blood, and I can’t imagine it will be too long before I find myself welcoming people into my next one.
Staying Connected with Cornell
A 2001 graduate of the School of Hotel Administration, Will is a familiar presence at the School and its events. He is a popular guest lecturer, a multi-year speaker in the Dean’s Distinguished Lecturer Series; he has served as a keynote speaker at Hotel Ezra Cornell and on industry panels at multiple HEC conferences. In 2023, he and fellow Hotelie Randy Garutti ‘97 co-emceed Cornell’s 2023 Hospitality Icon & Innovator Awards Celebration honoring renowned restaurateur, Danny Meyer, as the Hospitality Icon of the Year.
Hotelies Chime In
“Will was the life of the party at the Hotel School, radiating positivity and boundless energy. His big, genuine smile charmed everyone he met, making him an instant favorite among peers and professors alike. Will had a natural ability to bring people together, and everyone wanted to be on his team. Whether in the classroom or during social events, he exuded a contagious enthusiasm that made him stand out. His magnetic personality and leadership qualities were already evident, laying the foundation for the successful career he would later build.”
Deniz Omurgonulsen, Class of 2000
“There are countless Cornell stories I could tell about Will. There’s the time he begged campus police not to detain a visiting chef for wildly spraying passersby with a fire extinguisher. The time we rushed to the City to visit thirteen of the best restaurants in a single day, filling our notebooks with pages of inspiration. Or pulling an all-nighter with a corked bottle of Burgundy as we crammed for our Oceanography final – the one class we both nearly failed. He was brilliant, hilarious, and kind, and I deeply cherished his friendship. But it’s a story shortly after college that best shines a light on who he really is. Upon graduating I moved to Alaska to begin my first tour as an Air Force officer. Will headed to Spain to learn the language and gain international experience. I figured our friendship would sadly mirror the great geographic distance between us, and gloomily felt resigned to this reality. So I was shocked when Will called one day and said “I bought a ticket to Anchorage – it’s been too long since we’ve seen each other. I’ll be there in a week.” That’s the thing about Will – he courageously lives with his whole heart open to the world. He may have won every restaurant and hospitality on the planet, but it’s his character, humanity, and soul that I admire most.”
Brian Canlis, Class of 2001
“How lucky I was to have welcomed Will to Tabla Restaurant and Union Square Hospitality Group in his first job out of Cornell. The countless hours we spent at the front door together turned into years of impact across USHG at MOMA, Eleven Madison Park, Shake Shack and more. With Will, every late night and early morning was filled with mutual learning, endless innovation, and deep friendship that continues decades later. Rarely does achievement meet humility in a person as it has with Will. He has an insatiable hunger to create special moments and to capture the hearts of all who come into his life. I’ll be cheering for him wherever his path takes him, especially as he enters the Hotelie Hall of Fame!”
Randy Garutti, Class of 1997
Will and his wife, Christina, at home in Nashville with children Frankie and Sonny (not in photo), and their dog, Butter.
Publications & Industry Awards
When it comes to offering hospitality, Will Guidara is the guy. Guidara is best known for elevating New York City’s Eleven Madison Park to the number-one spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2017. He’s since left the restaurant to focus on spreading the philosophy that got them there—what he’s coined “unreasonable hospitality”—starting with his new book out now, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect (Optimism Press). As Guidara defines it, unreasonable hospitality is going above and beyond in the pursuit of how you make people feel—and that the concept can and should extend beyond just the restaurant industry.
From Open Table, October 2022
Currently #5 on the NYT Business Best Sellers List
“Will Guidara weaves heartfelt stories and keen observations to illustrate how purposeful, no-holds-barred hospitality satisfies our essential need to belong. An exceptional book for anyone or any organization aiming to excel at human connection.”
Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group
and author of Setting the Table
Will has co-authored four cookbooks with Chef Daniel Humm, was named one of Crain’s New York Business’s 40 Under 40 and is the recipient of WSJ Magazine’s Innovator Award.
James Beard Foundation Awards
- 2016 James Beard Foundation Award – Outstanding Service, Eleven Madison Park
- 2014 James Beard Foundation Award – Outstanding Bar Program, NoMad New York
- 2008 James Beard Foundation Award – Outstanding Wine Service, Eleven Madison Park
Michelin
- Eleven Madison Park, 3 stars 2012-2018
- NoMad New York, 1 star 2013-2018
Additional Awards
- 2016 Wall Street Journal – Innovator Awards
