Adam Handling is the chef and owner of one Michelin-starred Covent Garden restaurant, Frog by AH
As a boy, Adam never dreamt of pioneering his own brand of British fine dining; he spent much of his time outdoors with the other young boys causing mischief. He only embraced the idea when, at the age of 16, he became the youngest ever apprentice chef at Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland.
Today, Adam is a renowned chef and restaurateur with multiple award-winning businesses to his name within the Adam Handling Restaurant Group.
Biography
Adam was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1988. His father was a Sergeant Major in the army. When he was 16, he started an apprenticeship at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland, making him the youngest ever apprentice chef there. He still credits his success to that training.
When asked why he believes he was given the role at such a young age, he said: "I’m brutally honest, very stubborn, and I always want to be the very best at anything I do, and I think they liked that."
When he started at Gleneagles, he was only responsible for preparing vegetables, but after nine months, he was running the grill.
When he left Gleneagles almost three years later, he was named head chef at Fairmont St Andrews in Fife, where he worked for two years. In 2011, he went travelling for a year to continue learning about food, gaining much of his inspiration in Japan, where he developed a passion for zero-waste cooking.
Upon his return to London, he was named head chef St Ermin’s Hotel in St James’ Park, London, helping to earn 2 AA Rosettes for its restaurant.
In 2011, the chef left St Ermin's to travel the world and continue learning about food.
Upon his return to London in 2016, he opened The Frog E1 in the Old Truman Brewery Shoreditch and a zero-waste cafe, Bean & Wheat alongside it. The Frog E1 moved to a bigger site on Hoxton Square in 2018.
He opened his flagship, Frog by Adam Handling in Covent Garden in 2017, as well as a cocktail venue, Eve bar, underneath the West London restaurant and a whiskey-led bar, Iron Stag, below The Frog E1.
That same year, he ran an upmarket, zero-waste pop-up in Chelsea called Ugly Butterfly.
Due to pressures caused by Covid-19, the chef closed his East London Frog restaurant and Iron Stag in 2020.
Ugly Butterfly, meanwhile, opened as a permanent site in Carbis Bay, St Ives, Cornwall, in the summer of 2021.
That same year, he also launched The Loch & The Tyne in Old Windsor, a pub and restaurant with rooms, in line with his
