"I came to Paris 23 years ago, paying smugglers. I stayed 14 months without papers", recalls the 48-year-old chef with the build of a boxer, who wears two small flags on the collar of his jacket. embroidered: one from France, the other from Lebanon.

"Here, you can make your dreams come true," he continues.

"If today I have two starred restaurants, Alan Geaam and L'Auberge Nicolas Flamel (one star each in the Michelin guide, editor's note), several bistros, a bakery... and if I employ 80 people, it's because more than 20 years ago someone reached out to me and made me my first contract, which allowed me to have a residence permit".

Favorable to the creation of a residence permit "jobs in tension" announced by the government to respond to sectors in shortage of manpower, he believes that "among the young illegal immigrants who live here, there are talents. There we have to teach them French and train them so that they have a job... not just in difficult jobs. It will help our economy".

Alan Geaam is sorry to see "one of his divers, employed for ten years in a restaurant he bought in 2014, "not manage to obtain a residence permit, when he is "declared and has payslips": "It's blocked, we don't know why," he said.

In the cozy atmosphere of the restaurant that bears his name, whose menu combines "lobster bisque" with "black falafel with smoked eel", he admits to having taken two decades to "assume" his story and to say: " Yes, I am self-taught, yes I arrived in France with a smuggler, but I have the right to be a starred chef".

The starred chef of Lebanese origin Alan Geaam prepares a dish in the kitchen of his restaurant "Alan Geaam", on December 22, 2022 in Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

Born in Liberia, Alan Geaam grew up in Tripoli in a Lebanon at war, suffered "from the bombardments, lost school friends, neighbors".

"When we ate eggs and bread from the day before, it was a party," he says.

"Know how to love"

Arrived in France at the age of 25, on March 12, 1999, he slept on benches and became an illegal worker on construction sites for "a Bouygues group subcontractor who takes 80% of (his) salary", he says, and will put years repaying the debt contracted with his smugglers.

Hired as a dishwasher in a snack bar, he was regularized and climbed all the levels, "clerk, chef de partie, demi-chef, sous-chef, chef de cuisine", practicing in his maid's room to make "a mayonnaise or pesto" whose recipe he copied in a library book, inventing on his CV a prestigious training, to force the doors of the restaurants where he then proved himself.

The starred chef of Lebanese origin Alan Geaam in his restaurant “Alan Geaam”, on December 22, 2022 in Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

He changes his name: Azzam Abdallah Al Geaam, "too oriental, which unfortunately was scary" he says, to Alan Geaam, "more international", obtains French nationality and buys the oldest inn in Paris, L'Auberge Nicolas Flamel in 2007.

He will then open the Qasti and Qasti Shawarma bistros, the Faurn pizzeria, the Le Doukane grocery store... For the past week, he has been working as consultant chef at the restaurant of the luxury hotel Le K2 Altitude in Courchevel, a "great pride" .

His life is today in France with his wife Chloé, who "moves him forward" and his three children, Enzo, 14 years old, Léa, 7 years old and Margaux, 3 years old.

The starred chef of Lebanese origin Alan Geaam in his restaurant “Alan Geaam”, on December 22, 2022 in Paris © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP

But he still draws his energy from the alleys of Tripoli - celebrated in his recent book "Mon Liban" (Hachette), half autobiography, half cookbook - where he returns regularly.

We discover his mother Ilham, who taught him "to love people: because to cook, you have to know how to love".

© 2022 AFP