The Future Of Modern British Cuisine Is Safe With Adam Handling
At the age of 15, Adam Handling put on his father’s suit and set out to interview for a chef apprenticeship at Scotland’s Gleneagles Hotel. He didn’t know a lot about food and had no real experience in the kitchen – all he knew was that he didn’t want to go to university. Fast forward about two decades, and Handling is one of the UK’s most exciting chefs, with more than a couple of awards to his credit.
“I fell in love with it. I struggled for the first six months, being the youngest person in the place, but it was the grandest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life – even if it was an extremely fiery environment back then,” Handling says of his time as a teenager at Gleneagles. Now, Handling is the chef-owner of the Adam Handling Collection, a group of venues which celebrate quintessentially British dining experiences with a modern twist, taking you from pub classics to afternoon tea to fine dining.
The Frog is Handling’s flagship restaurant (you’ll find it in the heart of Covent Garden), with a cocktail bar (Eve Bar) located just underneath. The Loch & The Tyne is the group’s restaurant and pub in the stunning countryside of Old Windsor. Next up is The Tartan Fox, a pub in Cornwall that showcases the best of the region’s produce. The prettiest of them all is ironically called Ugly Butterfly (one look at those sea views, and you’ll know that there are exactly zero “ugly” things about it).
The prettiest of them all is ironically called Ugly Butterfly.
Located along the Cornish coast in St. Ives, it’s one of the UK’s best coastal restaurants. All of Handling’s restaurants have their own unique personalities, but they all champion sustainable, British luxury.
On your plate: Low-waste, comforting and beautiful
“Growing up, food was just about staying alive, it wasn’t about pleasure. I didn’t eat at a single restaurant when I was younger,” Handling says, recalling a dish from his childhood that his mother would make. “It was just pasta with tomato sauce, with chopped-up smoked sausage, sweet corn and boiled eggs on top. I think that was it, but it was just so delicious. That’ll give you an understanding of what kind of food I ate growing up. It was nothing adventurous, nothing luxury. It was just one pot in the middle of the table.”
From one-pot pasta, Handling is now the brains behind some seriously inventive dishes. Think classic British dishes that you know and love, elevated into almost magical-looking creations. Take the cheese and onion crisp, that Handling has reinvented using buckwheat crackers filled with sweet onion jam and topped with warm Old Winchester cheese.
Think classic British dishes that you know and love, elevated into almost magical-looking creations.
Or if you love a fruity dessert, there’s the caramelised apple with woodruff and custard that celebrates the beauty of British ingredients – blending caramelised apple harvested from the orchards at The Loch & The Tyne with woodruff foraged by the team and paired with mousse and custard ice cream. Comforting, delicious – and a glimpse of art on your plate.
His favourite dish on the menu? “The cod.” Aged in seaweed, the fish is gently steamed with horseradish and served with sweet grapes, slow-cooked clams and a sauce made from roasted green chillies. “I tried to recreate the texture of fish and chips but without frying it,” he says. You’ll rarely find fried food in his restaurants, just because Handling doesn’t like the way it makes him feel. “This is my name on the door, and we serve food I want to eat myself, so it’s not loaded with butter or gluten.”
These are just some of the dishes you might find at The Frog, which recently retained its Michelin star at the 2025 Michelin Guide Ceremony held in Glasgow this February. But across his restaurants, British produce, sustainability, and fighting food waste are some of the core principles that Handling practices.
British produce, sustainability, and fighting food waste are some of the core principles that Handling practices.
But how does he do it? “I’m a firm believer that if you want to be sustainable, control what you can tangibly touch,” he says.
Staying seasonal & sustainable
80% of the produce used at Handling’s restaurants is British and 20% ( like spices, coffee etc), is sustainably sourced and brought in. Handling’s team also believe in utilising everything, without wasting produce. For example, stock from beef bones is turned into vodka. “If you work harder, you can really utilise everything,” he says. “Just change the word “sustainable” to “tomorrow”, and think about everything that you need to do now that if you don’t do will affect tomorrow,” says Handling.
Handling’s zero-waste ethos has been inspired by his travels around the world, particularly in South East Asia. “In Japan, if something’s not on the tree, you don’t get it. If it’s not in season it’s not on the menu, that’s why the food is so clean and fresh because they eat with the season.”
Handling’s zero-waste ethos has also been inspired by his travels around the world, particularly in South East Asia.
That’s where Handling’s passion for low-waste and sustainable cooking began, and he started to adapt his style to develop the ethos of seasonal, mindful dining, that is now so apparent across his venues in the UK.
Handling’s success and his passion for championing British produce have not gone unnoticed, and he has a flurry of awards to his name. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2024, for services to hospitality and international trade. The chef was named Champion of Champions on the BBC’s Great British Menu in 2023 (with his trifle-inspired dessert ‘Food Fight’). He won the title of Restaurateur of the Year by British GQ at their Food and Drink Awards in 2020 – and these are just a few of the awards to his credit. So what does a Michelin-star status mean to an established chef? “It’s for the team,” Handling says. “I don’t need the pat on the back – any award that we get is for the team. It’s just validation that they are doing an awesome job. We are always trying to be better today than we were yesterday – we want two stars next year.”
What’s cooking next?
Turns out, Handling has something major up his sleeve. It’s big, it’s exciting and we think it’s going to be delicious. What is it? Well, we have absolutely no idea. “All I can say is that I’ve never done anything like this before. People keep asking me what the next food trend is going to be – hopefully, it’s what I’m about to open.”
All I can say is that I’ve never done anything like this before.
Handling confesses that he’s not good at regular things people are expected to know. “I don’t know how to put a shelf up or change a tyre. I’m just food and drink obsessed,” Handling says. Well, you don’t see us complaining about that, because, in the chef’s hands, the future of British cuisine looks very bright.
