Adam Handling to launch coffee shop and deli Bean & Wheat

The chef-patron at The Frog restaurant in Shoreditch is launching Bean & Wheat, a deli that promises to serve coffee from London-based roasters and use only locally-sourced ingredients.

It will be open for breakfast and lunch serving food to eat in or takeaway, with a menu developed by Handling and the team at The Frog that reflects ‘the innovative, flavourful combinations that customers have grown to expect’ but in a more casual setting, according to the chef.

Bean & Wheat will also maintain Handling’s no food waste philosophy. The food will be made on a daily basis using off-cuts and by-products from the kitchen at The Frog. Sandwich fillings will change daily, depending on what the chefs at the restaurant are cooking, but are likely to include duck liver parfait, pork terrine, and hummus, which is drizzled with a herb oil made using the tops of the herbs that are usually thrown away by chefs.

The café will also serve salads that will feature seasonal vegetable off-cuts, such as cauliflower stalks, as well as grains and beans.

Handling is due to open a second The Frog in Covent Garden​​ later this year, which will become his flagship restaurant. He hopes to eventually eliminate all food wastage in all The Frog restaurants and Bean & Wheat, by ensuring that nothing is thrown away needlessly.

Any wastage that can’t be used by the kitchen is sent off-site to be made into compost, from which The Frog currently grows the majority of its own fruit, vegetables and herbs.

“Food wastage is an issue that’s increasingly important in our industry, and one that’s particularly close to my heart,” says Handling. “Restaurants tend to waste so much food on a day-to-day basis, and we are trying to tackle this – in the next few years we hope to reach zero-waste status.”