Cateys 2024: Restaurateur of the Year - Independent: Adam Handling

Drive and determination are two of the main qualities needed to thrive as an independent restaurateur, and Adam Handling has no shortage of either. The Dundee-born chef has a growing list of awards and an expanding restaurant empire to his name, all by the age of 35.

 

Handling’s culinary career started when he was 16, when he joined Gleneagles in Auchterarder as an apprentice chef. After working as head chef at Fairmont St Andrews, he took on the same role at St Ermin’s hotel in London’s St James’s Park in 2012. The following year, he became the youngest ever recipient of The Caterer’s Acorn Award and was a finalist on the sixth series of MasterChef: The Professionals.

 

Handling struck out on his own to start the Adam Handling Restaurant Group in 2016 with the launch of the first Frog restaurant in London’s Spitalfields. Despite a rocky few years for the hospitality industry, the chef’s business has continued to grow and now includes the Michelin-starred Frog by Adam Handling in Covent Garden in London, Eve Bar in Covent Garden, the Loch & the Tyne gastropub in Windsor (which holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand), Ugly Butterfly in St Ives in Cornwall (recommended in the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland), and the newly-launched Tartan Fox gastropub in Newquay, also in Cornwall.

 

The strength of the business has been demonstrated by an impressive rise in revenue over the past year, despite 2023 trading being hampered by rising prices, train strikes and the cost of living crisis.

 

Handling has driven a strong focus on sustainability across his restaurants. The kitchen and bar teams work in synergy, where the stems and tops of fruit and vegetables form a basis for cocktails, and off-cuts of meats are made into bar snacks or distilled into alcohol.

 

Winning a Catey tops off a bumper year for Handling, who was named the Great British Menu Champion of Champions in 2023 as well as being made an MBE for services to hospitality and international trade in the New Year Honours List 2024. His work around sustainability and promoting British food has seen him become an ambassador for the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland tourist campaign, which the chef described as a “pinch me” moment.

 

Handling has also used his experience to give back to the industry. He has been head judge for the chef portion of the World Young Chef Young Waiter competition for several years and recently collaborated with the mymuybueno Academy of Culinary Arts in London. He is also an ambassador for food waste charity the Felix Project and African Revival, a UK charity that focuses on improving access to education in sub-Saharan Africa.

It’s no surprise our judging panel described Handling as a worthy winner of this award and someone who was fast becoming known as a strong ambassador for the hospitality industry. 

 

What the judges said

 

“Adam met the criteria for the award in all respects. He has shown superb flair and innovation in his approach and has achieved a standard of cuisine that puts him in the culinary first rank as well as the sustainable one.” Peter Harden

 

“Adam has shown outstanding business skills and is fast becoming an industry ambassador. This accolade is testament to his success.” Bill Toner

 

The shortlist

 

Tommy, James, Tom and Anne Banks and Matt Lockwood, the Tommy Banks Group

 

Natalie Demetriou, Lost in the Lanes Brighton

 

Adam Handling, Adam Handling Restaurant Group

 

David Moore, Pied à Terre London

 

James Sommerin, Home Penarth

 

The judges

 

Andreas Antona Antona Restaurants

 

Will Beckett Hawksmoor

 

Peter Harden Harden’s Limited

 

Bill Toner CH&Co