Alan Geaam – from a Liberian childhood to a Paris star

Behind an unassuming door on rue Lauriston, a few streets from the roar of the Arc de Triomphe, sits a dining room that quietly rewrote what French-Lebanese cooking could mean in Paris. Chef Alan Geaam opened his eponymous restaurant on 23 March 2017, in rooms that had previously carried two MICHELIN Stars under chef Akrame Benallal, and won his own star in February 2018. Geaam is entirely self-taught: born in Liberia to Lebanese parents, he fled civil war twice before arriving in Paris in 1999 with almost nothing, learning French and classical technique at the same time while working building sites and a Lebanese kitchen sink. Today the restaurant holds One MICHELIN Star for cooking that threads Beirut's pantry of pomegranate, sumac and labneh through a grammar of French sauce-work and seasonal produce, served in a room barely large enough for a handful of tables.

01The chef

Alan Geaam's path to this kitchen reads like fiction. Born in Liberia, he left as a child to escape civil war; his family resettled in Lebanon, their country of origin, only to find themselves caught in that country's own civil war as he grew up. He arrived in Paris in 1999 with a seven-day visa and two hundred francs in his pocket, and with nowhere to sleep he spent almost a week on the Champ de Mars before finding building work. He arrived in Paris in 1999 with a visa for seven days and 200 francs in his pocket, and not having anywhere to sleep, Alan Geaam spent his nights on the Champ de Mars for almost a week before finding work in construction. He painted walls, laid tiles, tried his hand at masonry, and washed dishes at night for a Lebanese caterer – until the chef of the restaurant injured himself and Alan Geaam took over his position.

Before rue Lauriston, Geaam built a small constellation of addresses. In 2007 he became chef-owner of the Auberge Nicolas Flamel, which would later earn its own MICHELIN Star in 2022; in 2015 he opened two bistros under his initials, AG, in Les Halles and Saint-Germain-des-Prés, both since closed. Then, in 2017, came the turning point: he took over the former restaurant of chef Akrame Benallal on rue Lauriston – previously awarded two MICHELIN Stars – and renamed it Restaurant Alan Geaam, pairing French gastronomy with Lebanese influence. He installed his gastronomic restaurant on 23 March 2017, in the space formerly occupied by chef Akrame Benallal's starred restaurant, and received one MICHELIN star in February 2018. In 2020 he opened a second, more casual venture, Qasti Bistrot, and in 2022 he published his first book, a hybrid of memoir and recipe collection drawn from his Lebanese heritage and his gastronomic table in the 16th arrondissement.

02The room

The dining room is deliberately small. Guests describe walking into a tiny, maybe seven-table, subdued and elegant grey-hued dining room. The room is small but very comfortable, with grey banquettes and padded armchairs. Walk in and the first thing you see is the kitchen itself: a semi-open kitchen and the chef himself, with décor that is stone-themed, neutral and tranquil, while also feeling welcoming and comfortable. It is a room built for close attention rather than spectacle – tables set just far enough apart for a private conversation, in a space that feels more like dining in someone's home than in a MICHELIN-starred dining room.

Insider tip

Open Mon–Fri only, lunch and dinner; booking essential given the room's small size.

03The cooking and what to order

Geaam's cooking is built on the tension between two tables he knows by heart: his mother's Lebanese kitchen and the French gastronomy he taught himself from books and television. The current Menu Signature, served over seven courses at both lunch and dinner, opens with langoustines seasoned with chich taouk spices, tart butternut squash and a grapefruit vinaigrette, and a mushroom course built on confit egg yolk, kechek and fir powder. The fish course is line-caught pollock from Roscoff dressed in soudjouk spice with mini leeks, a rich sauce and mussels from Prat-ar-Coum, followed by Gâtinais pigeon in a red wine sauce sharpened with pomegranate and an autumn garnish of sand carrots. A Lebanese cheese course of worked chenklich, onions confit in date molasses, verjus-poached grapes and black sesame leads into dessert: Soliès figs with rose geranium cream, almonds and rose ashta ice cream, or candied citron with a citrus baba and milk-and-honey cream. The kitchen notes that the menu shifts with the seasons.

04Wine, menus and price

Three tasting menus run from €95 for the three-course Menu Saveur to €148 for the five-course Découverte and €180 for the seven-course Signature, available at both lunch and dinner from Monday to Friday. A weekday lunch-only Menu Affaires is priced at €58, outside school holidays and public holidays. A wine pairing is offered from €70 on any of the three tasting menus, and on New Year's Eve the kitchen runs a separate €320 menu built around scallop carpaccio with black lemon, roast lobster with chich taouk spices and caviar, and a veal medallion finished with black truffle.

05When to go and booking

Restaurant Alan Geaam serves lunch from 12:00 to 14:00 and dinner from 19:30 to 21:30, Monday to Friday; it is closed on Saturdays and Sundays, which makes early reservation essential for weeknight visits. Given the room's size – a handful of tables around an open kitchen – booking well ahead is the only realistic way to secure a seat, particularly for the Signature menu in the evening.

06The neighbourhood

The address sits in the smart, residential 16th arrondissement, close to Charles de Gaulle-Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe. It stands just a few short steps from the chaos surrounding the Arc de Triomphe, behind an unassuming façade. It is a quiet, moneyed pocket of Paris better known for embassies and apartment blocks than for its tables, which makes Geaam's small, spice-driven dining room feel all the more like a discovery worth seeking out deliberately rather than stumbling upon.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.