Michelin-starred Chef Adam Handling is proud to announce the launch of his stunning boxset, a definitive collection of three recipe books that tell his story, the journey of his restaurant group, the road to his first Michelin star, and the ethos of sustainability that underpins it all.

Ten years in the making, this pioneering trilogy is “the book I’ve always wanted to publish”, says Adam. It shares his and his team’s deeply personal story, memories from Adam’s childhood and early career, recipes from every version of his flagship restaurant, Frog by Adam Handling (including much-loved fan favourites – yes, chicken butter is in there!), alongside the lessons they’ve learned on the journey to become zero-waste, as well as Adam’s favourite cocktail recipes.

The three books, ‘Frog by Adam Handling’; ‘Why Waste?’ and ‘Perfect, Three Cherries’ encompass everything that Adam, and his restaurant and bar teams have learned and developed over the years. From recipes and ingredients to their approach to sustainability, as well as forewords and contributions from some of the most respected leaders of the food and drink industry (including Gareth Ward, Alex Dilling, Pierre Koffman, Ben Elliot, Charlotte Hill OBE, Mike Robinson, Agostino Perrone, Erik Lorincz, Mark Sansom and Anna Sebastian). In Adam’s words, “This book is designed for my younger self. It’s everything I would have wanted to know when I was starting out in my career.

“This collection is something I would have loved to have had when I was learning more about my field. It only started as one book, showcasing Frog, but the more we dove into it, the waste book and cocktail books became clear. It’s the stuff that people don’t see behind the scenes – the researching, the training, the things we had to do to make Frog what it is today. To understand what Frog is, you need to understand the waste element, the foraging, the sustainability, provenance of ingredients, everything. It became clear that there really was no Frog book without the other two.”

Alongside recipes and personal memories, the books are filled with stunning imagery, ingredient and produce maps of Britain, and personal photos from Adam’s own family collection. No expense has been spared in terms of the production of the books – from the boxes, the covers, beautiful illustrations, and paper quality, every aspect of the books has been thoughtfully designed by Adam himself.

“I’m unbelievably proud of these books, not just because of what they represent, but because of the team that’s helped me to write them. My chefs, front of house, back of house, bartenders, my operations team - people that have dedicated years of their lives to me and my restaurant group, they’ve all contributed to these books. Education, inspiration, motivation, that’s what we do as a team and that’s what I want these books to do. They’re designed for people that want to learn and do something different”, says Adam.

The books are available to purchase now on the Adam Handling website, individually (from £30 - £70), or as a luxury, limited-edition boxset containing all three books (£160).

FROG BY ADAM HANDLING

Frog by Adam Handling, the book based on Adam’s Michelin-starred flagship restaurant, features in the region of 100 dishes from all his London kitchens, including Adam’s very first independent restaurant. Focusing on ‘British food, inspired by London’, it takes the reader on a journey across the British Isles, showcasing exceptional homegrown produce, the incredible suppliers whose ingredients feature in his dishes, and foraging and seasonality guides. It also contains contributions from some of the country’s top restaurant writers, including William Sitwell, Richard Vines, Paul Henderson, and Mark Sansom.

For Adam, this book is about elevating luxury British food to compete on a global level, using flavours from around the world but using only British ingredients to make them. “It’s a British cookbook,” says Adam, “and I hope it helps pave the way for what British food could be. What I want to show the world is that the UK can produce incredible dishes, but it doesn’t have a full identity yet, it’s a very young food style. It’s finding its feet and I hope this book helps to build on that – British food isn’t going to be in the history books until people write books about it. And I don’t think anyone’s written a book on this level, on this scale, to this standard of luxury before.”

This hardback book is priced at £70 boxed and is in large format with over 300 pages.

WHY WASTE?

Adam Handling’s sustainable motto is simple: Why Waste? It’s something he and his team question every day about everything they do. His waste book demonstrates his passion for sustainability and looks at the ways we can all utilise commonly wasted ingredients and transform them into spectacular dishes, illustrating that there should simply be no such thing as food waste. It’s not just a collection of sustainable, zero-waste recipes, but also a comprehensive guide to sustainability and using seasonal produce. Featuring detailed foraging and produce guides to the British Isles, great recipes, smart techniques, practical advice and tips for chefs and home cooks, and a commitment to be part of a positive change, it leads from the front in the fight to protect the environment.

“Do you remember when you were at school, working on a maths question, and the teacher says, ‘Show me your workings out.’? Well, this is my workings out. It’s how the team and I have developed our recipes in my kitchens. Not only that, it also contains all the research we had to do on our journey – a ten year journey. Finding alternative ingredients, sustainable companies, amazing people in the industry that are passionate about sustainability because, when you find people that are as passionate about something as you are, you learn so much more. And this book is everything I’ve learned. It’s got diagrams, pictures, foraging tips - everything that’s taken us years to discover.” – Adam Handling

Priced at £60, this large format hardback book has over 200 pages.

PERFECT, THREE CHERRIES

Perfect, Three Cherries is named after Adam’s favourite cocktail (a Perfect Manhattan, with 3 Maraschino cherries, naturally…), and is his cocktail book, featuring a raft of recipes that are sustainable takes on the classics. To Adam, creating a cocktail is just as much an art as designing a plate of food, and this book contains recipes, cocktail histories, drink styles, glassware, techniques, lab equipment, different types of ice – everything he’s learned since launching his own bars. Perfect, Three Cherries is not only the epitome of fun but reinforces Adam’s desire to showcase the very best of the British cocktail scene and represents the circle of sustainability within his group.

“I opened my first bar, Eve, to enhance Frog. The dream was to have a world-class bar attached to a Michelin starred restaurant. That dream is now a reality and this book is all about what happens when you get phenomenal bartenders that have the skillset to work side-by-side with chefs in the kitchen to create drinks. And what’s produced is cocktails that are really special and a book that’s really special. Don’t just take my word for it, I’ve got some of the best bartenders in the world to foreword the book!”, says Adam.

Perfect, Three Cherries is priced at £30 and is flexibound with over 200 pages.