The former executive chef of Danesfield House in Marlow-On-Thames will be head chef of Adam Handling Chelsea, when the restaurant opens in December. Simmonds had previously run year-long pop-up restaurant Test Kitchen in Soho and has also worked at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons,
Exact plans for the new restaurant are still under wraps but it will comprise a main dining room as well as a tea room and bar and will offer room service and banqueting. The restaurant will have its own entrance on Pont Street with the menu larger than at any of Handling’s other restaurants.
“It’s a very luxurious and intimate hotel that offers a unique British experience,” says Handling. “I know whether guests are coming to stay or dine, they want to embrace the hotel’s history and that ties in perfectly with my cooking. I want to draw on the heritage of the building and reinterpret it in my own way.”
Simmonds has previously said that he wanted to open his own restaurant, mooting Marylebone as a potential location, following his time at Test Kitchen, which closed at the start of the year. he had been looking for backers for the project.
Handling, who is executive chef at Belmond Cadogan Hotel, currently runs two The Frog restaurants, in Covent Garden and Hoxton, as well as his sustainable deli Bean & Wheat.
