Guest Chef Adam Handling

Adam’s Story 

I’ve always loved food and cooking. My mum is a great cook and I have always been interested in flavours and experimenting with flavour combinations. One of my earliest food memories was making chocolate truffles when I was about 12 years old, but it wasn’t until I joined Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland as their first ever trainee chef that I fell in love with cooking. Gleneagles actually offered me the job when I was 15, but my mum said I had to stay in school to finish my GCSEs. They held the position for me, and I joined ten days after my 16^th birthday. It was crazy; at first, I’d never seen anything like it, but I soon found my feet and being in a busy, fast-paced kitchen was where I felt at home.

 

After Gleneagles, I went on to work in a hotel in Newcastle as a sous chef, and from there I moved back to Scotland – to St Andrews, where I become Fairmont’s youngest ever head chef, and this is where I won Scottish Young Chef of the Year in 2011. I think that kicked off my competitive streak, because after that, I kept entering into awards and competitions.

 

I was a finalist in MasterChef: The Professionals in 2013, which is probably what got my name out there. I love competing, so I found the experience hugely rewarding. For me, the best part of the whole thing was the opportunity to learn from Michel Roux Jr. and Monica Galetti. Also spending time cooking for Massimo Bottura at Osteria Francescana – he really made me think and look at food differently, and to reflect on my own personal experiences. I’d say that’s probably one of the biggest influences on my cooking.

 

In 2013, I was the youngest person to be tipped by the Caterer magazine as one of the ‘30 under 30 to watch’ in the Acorn Awards. After that, I ran a restaurant in a hotel in London, which was awarded three rosettes from the AA after one year of opening.

 

I wrote my first cookbook in 2014, Smile or Get Out of The Kitchen, which is where I shared some of my favourite recipes and easy-to-follow dishes for home cooks.

 

I opened my first independent restaurant, The Frog E1, in June 2016 in Shoreditch. Looking back, I can’t believe I was only 27 at the time! From the start, we had a very clear vision of the kind of restaurant we wanted – no rules. Whether it was the food, alcohol, art or music, informality and flexibility was key. I wanted to throw out the rulebook and show that it’s possible to have beautifully made and presented food in a relaxed, casual setting. I wanted to open the kind of restaurant that I would love to go to; a Londoner’s favourite. The response was unbelievable! We had a really good response from diners and critics and then we started winning awards. We were voted both Best Restaurant of the Year – London and the overall Best Restaurant of the Year in the 2017 Food & Travel Reader Awards, and we were awarded three AA rosettes in the same year, before being awarded a Bib Gourmand by the Michelin Guide.

 

One of the main focuses of my restaurant group is to encourage sustainability and reduce food waste, so with that in mind, I opened Bean & Wheat – a sustainable café and deli which used all the by-products and offcuts created in my restaurants, ensuring that nothing is thrown away needlessly.

 

I then went on to open my flagship restaurant, Frog by Adam Handling, in 2017. It’s a destination restaurant in the heart of Covent Garden, which means there’s a huge variety in customers and there’s a lot of tourists in the area. The concept is slightly more formal but without being stuffy, and it still showcases my distinctive cooking style. I launched Eve Bar (located underneath Frog by Adam Handling) at the same time. It was my first bar venture, and I wanted to create a luxurious and unique bar whilst adhering to a strict zero-waste policy. I wanted to look at cocktail ingredients in the same way a chef looks at dish ingredients, so there’s a real collaboration between the kitchen and bar teams.

 

In 2018, we moved The Frog E1 to a larger, permanent site in Hoxton and we were able to bring Bean & Wheat to the new site too, because the building is huge. It meant we were able to improve the sustainable cycle, with both outlets being in the same building, so it’s easier for the chefs and has reduced the carbon footprint to zero. We're always looking at new ways to improve on what we've already achieved, but my approach to sustainability and zero waste will always be at the heart of my ventures.

 

We originally opened Iron Stag as a whisky-led bar when we first moved to Hoxton, but sadly licensing restrictions led us to re-think the venue and ultimately offer a new concept – a flexible events venue available to hire for live music and comedy, along with exceptional drinks and food created by my kitchen and bar teams.

 

My biggest venture yet came in February this year, when I opened several Adam Handling outlets at the Belmond Cadogan Hotel. As Chef Patron, I’m responsible for food and beverage across the hotel, which includes the main restaurant – Adam Handling Chelsea. It maintains the foundations of my other venues because I make sure I build all of my venues on the same pillars – food, drink, music, art – but at Adam Handling Chelsea, I can also take inspiration from the building and the area’s incredibly rich history. There’s also a stunning bar, a terrace, a tea lounge called Cadogan’s by Adam Handling where we serve an afternoon tea I spent a year creating with my executive pastry chef, breakfast, room service, banqueting and events – we’ve created all of it!

 

In all honesty, I don’t get a lot of downtime but when I do, I love to travel and have some family time. My son, Oliver, recently turned one and he’s keeping us on our toes. I love to eat out and try new restaurants as much as I can. As a chef, I think it’s so important to see what’s going on in the industry and experience it first-hand, especially in London where it’s constantly changing and evolving.