20 years ago, Lebanese Alan Gaam first came to Paris. Then he did not speak French at all, did not have a penny in his pocket, no shelter – he slept on the street on a bench. Luck first smiled at him when Alan got a job as a dishwasher.
The incident marked the beginning of a brilliant career. It so happened that the chef of the restaurant where Alan was washing the dishes cut his hand with a knife, and he had to be taken to the hospital. The smart Lebanese decided to replace the cook, although no one asked him to. Both the restaurant visitors and the owner of the establishment liked his cooking so much that they looked at the washer in a new way. “Yes, you can cook!” – then the owner of the restaurant exclaimed.
The fact is that from the age of 10, Alan helped his father work in a grocery store, and his mother loved him and knew how to cook. This instilled in the self-taught chef an interest in food and cooking. And while serving in the Lebanese army, he was even the personal chef of the regiment commander.
Alan’s career quickly went up, so much so that his restaurant “Alan Geamm” is located – not much, not a little – next to the Arc de Triomphe!
But the other day Alan received his first Michelin star.
“I never thought that Michelin would be interested in someone like me, because I was a self-taught person who had to sleep on the street at the age of 19 and start his journey by washing dishes,” Alan comments on the unexpected receipt of a star. – I was sure that the Michelin guide includes chefs who work in fancy restaurants and learn from the great masters of the culinary business, but it turned out that this is not at all the case. And this is a very pleasant surprise. ” According to the Lebanese chef, the main reason he cooks is to make people happy.
By the way, on the day when the Alan Geamm restaurant received its first Michelin star, in a few hours all the places in the restaurant were booked three weeks in advance.