At ‘Hame’ with Chef Adam Handling

We explore the growth in ‘Chefs At Home’ offerings, by one of the early adopters

During the UK’s first national lockdown, many chefs found themselves cautiously pondering the feasibility of a food delivery service to meet the growing demand for luxury, restaurant-quality meals at home. For some, like The Frog’s Adam Handling, it seemed too much of a challenge.

“I loved the idea, but I just couldn’t imagine our food travelling well,” says Adam. “Then there were other challenges to consider, like how to package the food and how replicate the authentic Frog by Adam Handling restaurant experience at someone’s house.”

But Adam wasn’t to be beaten by a challenge. Driven by the desire to help support his restaurant group and keep many of his staff employed at a time when the hospitality industry was struggling, he sat down with his team and started planning.

“The lockdown actually gave us a chance to completely shut down and rethink our restaurant operations,” says Adam. “Developing new concepts or ideas while a restaurant is in operation is really difficult, so we took advantage of the opportunity to create something spectacular.”

The result was Hame, an at-home meal kit that brings Adam’s luxury, restaurant-quality dishes to diners’ kitchens, without them having to buy ingredients, follow a recipe and prepare anything from scratch.

Every element of the kit is prepared on site by Adam’s kitchen team at Frog by Adam Handling, and can either be collected from the restaurant in London’s Covent Garden, or delivered nationwide via FedEx on a weekly basis.

Hame’s menus have been designed to include some of Adam’s best-loved signature restaurant dishes, like Lobster Wagyu and Mushroom Agnolotti with Parsley and Garlic. Customers can choose from meal kits like a three-course Sunday Lunch for 2 package or a six-course Who Are You Trying to Impress package, which includes a bottle of Adam’s own label English Sparkling Wine.

“Being able to put together all the components for our guests to finish off at home meant we could guarantee that the quality of food wouldn’t be impacted by transportation,” says Adam. “It was a great way to us to keep providing that experience, but also it was really rewarding to be able to keep cooking at a time when our restaurants were shut.”

Adam and his team have worked hard to make sure that Hame is as close as possible to an authentic restaurant experience. By doing as much of the cooking as possible from his restaurant, Adam’s customers simply follow his step-by-step video demonstration to finish off their meals at home.

“The video demonstrations I filmed are included as part of the kit when it arrives,” says Adam. “All our customers need to do is scan the QR code on the recipe card, and they’ll be taken to a video of me talking them through all the components of putting the finishing touches to their meal.

“We also offer wine pairing recommendations for each of the main dishes available through Hame, which can be found on our website, as well as a range of bottled cocktails from our award-winning list at Eve Bar.”

Adam initially tested the Hame model in May 2020 with London-based deliveries. It wasn’t long before he started receiving regular requests from diners in lockdown across the UK, so Hame was expanded to national deliveries just one week later. But it hasn’t been without challenges.

Sustainability Remains Paramount

“Packaging was one of the most difficult issues,” says Adam. “We had to go through quite a few iterations of how we packed the kits before we got it right. Originally, we tried packaging each component of the dish separately, but that ended up being quite chaotic and time consuming. Now, we package each dish together, which works much better.”

Sustainability has also been a high priority. As in his restaurants, Adam’s team work hard to use sustainable materials and minimise waste, and have aimed to maintain that commitment with Hame.

“Finding the right sustainable packaging can be difficult, especially from a price perspective, but it’s an issue we refused to compromise on. We now package our kits are in vacuum pouches, which look similar to plastic but are made from biodegradable composite film, making them fully sustainable.”

So what’s next on the horizon for Adam’s restaurants, and will we be seeing the end of Hame kits when Frog by Adam Handling reopens? Happily, it’s a concept Adam plans to continue.

“Businesses have spent a lot of time, money and energy to create ‘at home’ models and it’s clearly been successful as a concept,” says Adam. “I’ve been really encouraged by how much support we’ve had for Hame, and it’s helped to subsidise some of the loss we saw from the closure of our restaurants, which we’re all thankful for.

“It’s also a model that can be scaled up or down depending on changing government restrictions, so going forward I think it’ll play an important part of how we maintain financial stability, keep our staff employed and reach guests across the country who are unlikely to be able to visit for the foreseeable future.”

Even as his restaurants remain closed due to enforced Government COVID restrictions, when he re-opens, Adam will continue to make Hame available and ensure it reflects an organically changing menu in tandem with the restaurant’s offering. He also plans to create bespoke boxes for special dates throughout the year including Valentine’s Easter and birthdays.

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Hame kits for two range from £110 to £300, while single A La Carte menus start from £45. To order a kit, visit www.adamhandling.co.uk/hame