db Eats: The Frog

db’s resident foodie, Lucy Shaw, hops to rising star Adam Handling’s The Frog in Spitalfields for chicken butter, veal tartare and the best mac and cheese of her life.

The concept: Spunky young chef Adam Handling has achieved a lot in his 28 years. Named Scottish Young Chef of the Year in 2015, two years prior he appeared on MasterChef: The Professionals while working at St Ermin’s Hotel in St James’s Park. Last June he opened his first solo venture, The Frog, in Ely’s Yard behind the Truman Brewery in Spitalfields. Amidst all this, he’s found time to write a cookbook called Smile or Get Out of the Kitchen – signed copies of which can be bought at The Frog for £20.

The décor: Sharing a square with food trucks like Mother Clucker and Pizza Purist, The Frog is housed in a light and airy glass-fronted space that looks part conservatory, part greenhouse. The more casual conservatory would be dreamy in summer, all swinging chairs and dried flowers.

We were sat in the main restaurant, which fuses natural and industrial elements – climbing ivy prettifies the space filled with exposed pipes and low-hung industrial lights. The soundtrack runs the gamut from hip-hop to indie rock. A pair of frogs keep watch on the bar where the cocktails are written on a blackboard in green chalk.

Bread and chicken butter

The food: Handling’s ethos is simple – to create dishes using fresh, seasonal ingredients that showcase his technical prowess and eye for detail. On his website he proclaims a love for Asian flavours and cooking techniques, which is evident.

More apparent still on my visit was our shared love of black truffle and cheese, both of which are weaved into a large number of the dishes to great effect. You can see his way of thinking – if in doubt, whip out a black truffle and go wild before sending it out.

Perhaps due to its east London setting, The Frog is able to offer a hugely good value set lunch priced at £35 for three dishes. These don’t however include the snacks, which are some of the most exciting high points of the meal. Among them is a crunchy cracker crammed with smoky, salty barbecue beef, chilli and pea green lovage that sets the bar high for the feast that followed.

Another highlight from the snacks list were the cheese doughnuts – two little balls of wickedness oozing with umami-rich molten cheese and blanketed with Parmesan and black truffle shavings. The combo may prove too rich for many, but tickled me pink.

The surprise of the day came in the form of a simple sounding starter of celeriac, truffle (of course) dates and lime. Served on a rustic blue plate, the dish revealed itself in layers, beginning with the earthy crunch of the celeriac followed by dollops of creamy yoghurt, zingy hits of lime and the sweet finish from the dates.

Signature dishes: Having done my homework, I was keen to try Handling’s famous chicken butter, which didn’t disappoint. Served like a scoop of vanilla ice cream, the butter arrives flecked with salty slivers of chicken skin that adds to the incredible, irresistible intensity of the chicken flavour.

When slathered together on a slice of bread, the result is a salty, savoury, nostalgic taste of childhood roast chickens. If I’d just ordered a bowl of butter and side of bread I would have gone home happy.

Mac and cheese

Also unmissable is Handling’s signature dish – mac and cheese, which, for a £10 supplement, involves a waiter rocking up at your table with a big black truffle and letting it rain over your plate.

Light and fluffy, beneath the cloud of cheddar, Parmesan and gruyère lies perfectly cooked tiny tubes of macaroni that play second fiddle to the cheese. All other attempts at mac and cheese will now pale in comparison.

The drinks: It’s worth trying some of the cocktails when you visit, which have kooky names like Cherry Got Trumped and Sweet Frog of Mine. My On The Streets of Kingston was a vivifying, ginger heavy, lip-smacking blend of ginger, gin and lime served in a brown paper bag, supposedly to transport you to the mean streets of Jamaica. I de-robed mine and chugged it from the bottle.

On the wine front, I began with a slightly lifeless glass of Italian Chardonnay, but things improved when I moved to South Africa with a glass of Johan Meyer’s 2015 Mother Rock Chenin Blanc from the Swartland. The unfiltered golden drop boasted notes of rich, ripe cooking apples.

Who to know: Seek out Adam at the pass of the open kitchen and ask him about his new venture – a sister Frog in Covent Garden due to open this summer with a speakeasy in the basement. The plan is to expand The Frog family to five over the next five years.

Don’t leave without: Buying the chefs a beer. For a mere £5 you can make a hard working chef’s night by asking for the tip be put into their beer fund. If you’re feeling particularly generous, you can hook the whole team up with some suds.

The last word: While his fiddly food that requires precision tweezer work may not be to everyone’s taste, particularly traditionalists, Adam Handling is a hugely talented chef with immense potential delivering dishes that are pleasing to the eye, bursting with flavour and expertly executed.

The Frog epitomises the modern London dining scene. Handling’s technical skill wouldn’t be out of place in a Michelin-starred Mayfair site and yet here he is, in a cosy conservatory in Spitalfields serving some of the most intense and exciting morsels I’ve tried in a long time.

It will be interesting to see how the Covent Garden site is received, as Handling himself seems so integral to The Frog concept working. I hope its essence isn’t diluted as he’s onto something special. Hop to it!

The Frog, Ely’s Yard, Old Truman Brewery, 2 Hanbury Street, London E1 6QR; +44 (0)20 3813 9832; the three-course lunch menu costs £35.