Adam Handling declared ‘champion of champions' on Great British Menu

Adam Handling's trifle-inspired ‘Food Fight' dessert was voted the best dish at the Great British Menu banquet by guests, with the chef named the 2023 Champion of Champions.

Handling's dessert was inspired by Dundee publishers, DC Thomson, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Beano and Dandy, featuring throwable custard, smashable cake and jelly.

The chef-owner of the Adam Handling Restaurant Group and owner of the Michelin-starred Frog by Adam Handling in London's Covent Garden made his way through to the banquet of the BBC Two competition after having come close for several of his other dishes.

His starter of hen of the woods mushrooms, potato and crispy nettles, ‘The mouse that saved the lion', was inspired by one of the episodes in the BBC's Five Fables animated series, based on Aesop's Fables and narrated by Billy Connolly.

The inspiration for his fish course was Disney's animation Brave, set in the Highlands. Named 'A princess should not have weapons...', the dish was comprised of a piece of barbecued salmon served with wild garlic capers and a whey sauce. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame inspired his main course, 'Ratty's Picnic'.

The Adam Handling Restaurant Group includes Frog by Adam Handling and Eve bar in London, the Loch & The Tyne in Old Windsor, and Ugly Butterfly in Cornwall.

Handling's career has seen him awarded Scottish Chef of the Year, British Culinary Federation's Chef of the Year, and he was and still is the youngest person to be one of The Caterer's 30 under 30 to watch, in the 2013 Acorn Awards.

The banquet, celebrating the best of British animation and illustration to mark the 65th birthday of Paddington Bear, saw Avinash Shashidhara's Gruffalo-inspired ‘Scrambled Snake by the Lake' selected as the starter, while Nick Beardshaw cooked his fish course ‘A Moon-Shaped Pool', a tribute to the artwork of Radiohead's 2016 album of the same name.

2018 Acorn Award winner and central region finalist Tom Shepherd cooked the main course with his version of Desperate Dan's cow pie, based on the Dandy character. Will Lockwood, from Roots in York, made the canapé and pre-dessert dishes as the highest scoring runner-up.

Image: Hazel Thompson