Adam Handling to open first chocolate shop

Chef Adam Handling will open his first chocolate shop in London’s Covent Garden this week.

The chef-owner of the Michelin-starred Frog by Adam Handling hinted at plans for “the most exciting venue [he has] ever done” last month.

In a video update on Instagram, Handling gave a tour of the new site, which will offer a selection of hand-painted chocolates and hot chocolates when it opens on 26 March. It was later confirmed truffles, cookies, brownies, pastries and chocolate nut spreads will also be available.

He said: “With coffee, people know what they like. You like coffee being hard-roasted or more acidic, more bitter. You have a preference. But in this country, people think chocolate just takes like chocolate, so I thought of doing a chocolate shop where we grind our own beans and basically have single origin, single location, single bean variety, so you can really taste the difference.”

The team will roast and grind cocoa beans from countries such as India, Peru and Madagascar, to produce their own chocolates in-house while also working with producers like XOCO Gourmet. 

Flavours will include rum caramel; Krug Champagne; caramelised biscuit and Piedmont hazelnut.

Handling said he felt “like a kid in a candy shop” when the opportunity came to launch his own chocolate store.

The Dundee-born chef started his culinary career aged 16, when he joined Gleneagles in Auchterarder as an apprentice chef.

He now owns and operates the Frog by Adam Handling in Covent Garden, 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 Tartan Fox gastropub in Newquay, also in Cornwall, which was launched in June 2024.

Image: Justin De Souza