International
Alan GEAAM
Chef : 4 restaurants
Of Lebanese origin, Alan Geaam arrived in Tripoli at the age of 4. Raised in a working-class district of the city where his parents were shopkeepers, he already spent his time in the kitchen with his mother. "I was curious and greedy. I still remember the taste of fried chicken skin, I loved that, and chicken with cabbage confit, 7 spices and chillies, a recipe of my mother's that I often remake, but it's never the same!"
As far back as he can remember, Alan Geaam loves to cook. He prepared dishes for his fellow scouts and did his military service in the kitchen. But he had to leave Lebanon to escape the civil war. He arrived in France with only a backpack. "I slept at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, worked on construction sites and, at night, washed dishes in a restaurant."That's when his destiny changed: he replaced the chef of the snack bar where he worked at the drop of a hat, and it was a success! He obtained a work contract, a residence permit and a position as assistant cook at Totem, the Musée de l'Homme's restaurant. "I learned everything on the job, the French language through songs, and cooking from books. I worked day and night."
Then, finally, he became head chef at the Zango Les Halles restaurant, and finally set up on his own in 2007, when he bought the Auberge Nicolas Flamel. "I managed to get the restaurant off the ground. The restaurant was full and the guidebooks started to take notice."In 2015, he moved to the Halles district and opened a restaurant bearing his initials: AG Les Halles. Gault&Millau immediately awarded him 2 toques. He then opened AG Saint-Germain, before settling in rue Lauriston in 2017, at the former address of chef Akrame Benallal. "It wasonly there that I allowed myself to introduce Lebanese flavors into my cooking."And it worked. Awarded 3 toques in his first year, with a mark of 15/20, the chef obtained 16.5/20 in 2022 and was selected to participate in the production of the Gault&Millau 2023 Gala Dinner.
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Self-made chef, Alan Geaam
Not a single article mentions that he is self-taught. After a singular journey that took him from Liberia to Lebanon and the United States, Alan Geaam landed in Paris, where he found a job as a dishwasher. The rest is history: he took the chef's place at the drop of a hat, taught himself the basics of cooking and, finally, successfully opened his own restaurants.Our partners
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