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PARIS: Chef Alan Geaam has two flags sewn onto the collar of his white coat: The Lebanese — representing his country of origin, where his love of cooking began — and the French, symbolizing the fact that Paris has been his adopted home for the past two decades, the city where his dreams came true.
Geaam is a native of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, where he grew up during Lebanon’s disastrous Civil War. His mother’s cooking provided some respite from the horrors.
“Despite the war, my mother was always cooking over a pot, adding spices, and the smell of the food would emerge,” Geaam tells Arab News. “Everything that we lost in the war was compensated with my mother’s cooking.”
In 2017, Geaam opened Restaurant Alan Geaam. (Supplied)
From a young age, Geaam had high ambitions. “French food is internationally famous. I would see it in magazines and on the television, and I said to myself that someday I would go to Paris and learn,” he said. “Some children want to go to the moon or be Superman. I wanted to learn about cooking in Paris.”
Within his family, some members of which were engineers or doctors, there was skepticism about Geaam’s career choice.
“I told my mother that I wanted to become a chef,” he says. “(I explained that) in France, a chef is very respected, like a lawyer or a doctor.”
Geaam finally made his life-changing move to the French capital in 1999, when he was in his twenties. It was anything but easy. He traveled by himself, he didn’t speak French, he didn’t know anyone, and his visa was valid for just seven days.
“I had 200 Francs — that’s 30 Euros — in my pocket,” Geaam recalls.
Alan Geaam is a fine-dining concept that presents Lebanese cuisine in a sophisticated French style. (Supplied)
He landed his first day job cleaning out workshops, in which he also slept. At night, he worked in a Lebanese snack bar, helping out and learning from the chef, until one day things took a turn.
“The chef didn’t come to work and I said, ‘This is my opportunity.’ I jumped right into cooking and did the service,” said Geaam.
Over time, Geaam’s situation slowly improved. Aside from his professional growth, he received a residency permit and started teaching himself French by reading books. He also changed his name — from Azzam to Alan. “It was easier for people to pronounce,” he says. “Honestly, I didn’t have confidence in my story. I didn’t learn at school and I was ashamed of that. Eighteen years later, I broke that barrier and I’m proud of my story.” He adds that he hopes others will find inspiration in that story.
Geaam’s restaurant serves Qasti Shawarma. (Suppplied)
“I was a young Lebanese man with no money and no education,” he says. “I started from zero — even below zero. All of us can reach our goals, but we need to wake up in the morning, work hard, and not give up.”
In 2017, Geaam opened Restaurant Alan Geaam, a fine-dining concept that presents Lebanese cuisine in a sophisticated French style. The following year, something of a miracle happened. “I got a phone call at 6:30 and they told me, ‘Welcome to the Michelin family. You got a star this year,’” he said.
In the country that has the most Michelin-starred restaurants, Geaam claims he is the first Lebanese chef to have his restaurant attain the most-coveted honor in the gastronomic world. The French press has taken note too; Geaam has received mentions in Le Figaro and Libération.
Geaam’s eatery also offers Qasti Bistro Hummus. (Suppplied)
“It’s a dream to open a restaurant, but what’s even nicer is when you open a restaurant that gets a Michelin star,” he says. “It’s proof that your food is delicious and you’re clever.”
Geaam has also set up a number of casual eateries in the city’s third arrondisement — Qasti Bistro, Qasti Shawarma and Grill, and Saj, la Galette Libanaise — as well as a small food store, Le Doukane, providing products imported from Lebanon, combining to create what Geaam calls “a Lebanese neighborhood.”
With its authentic Levantine flavors and generous hospitality, Qasti Bistro has proven very popular and is often packed with customers munching on warm shawarmas, falafel sandwiches, or hummus.The wavy blue patterns of its interior are reminiscent of the Mediterranean waters off Lebanon.
Geaam clearly likes to keep busy. Aside from his Parisian enterprises, he recently launched a new branch of Qasti in the coastal town of Marseille. With an autobiography/recipe book in the making as well, it seems Geaam’s story is only just beginning.
DUBAI: From the world’s first unlicensed restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star to one of the rare Indian eateries to get a nod, Dubai is now home to a host of Michelin-starred dining spots. Arab News caught up with a number of the restaurants’ chefs to find out how they plan to celebrate and whether this means the heat in the kitchen is about to get hotter. The chefs of 11 Woodfire, Torno Subito, Tresind Studio, and Armani/Ristorante, which all gained one star, described how it felt to be internationally recognized after it was recently announced that 11 restaurants in Dubai received a Michelin star — nine places won one star, while two restaurants received two stars. 11 Woodfire’s chef Akmal Anuar
View this post on Instagram A post shared by A K M A L A N U A R (@akmalanuarofficial) The restaurant, located in Jumeirah, is the first unlicensed eatery to win a Michelin Guide star. Its chef Akmal Anuar described the achievement as “huge.” He said: “For me being Muslim, and to achieve this and to be on stage with everybody else, proves that nothing is impossible. I feel overwhelmed. I am very, very happy.” Anuar plans to celebrate the milestone with his team next week. “We will shut down one day and buy a cake. We will sit down, have a motivational speech, and get ready for the new era. This (win) wasn’t just me; it was my team. They all worked very hard for it,” he added. 11 Woodfire offers dishes such as black Angus steak, jumbo prawns with brown butter, Japanese eggplant, and Chilean sea bass, while priding itself on being committed to zero waste and following sustainable practices. Torno Subito’s chef Bernardo Paladini
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View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bernardo Paladini (@bernardopaladini) Chef Bernardo Paladini’s intention with Torno Subito, located in the Palm Jumeirah, was “to have fun and to open an audacious Italian restaurant with great food, quality ingredients, and vibrancy.” He said: “In all honesty, this completely caught us by surprise. We really did not expect it and it is a result of four years of hard work. I feel elated, excited, and proud. I still cannot believe it.” The chef gave credit to his team and pointed out that the award was not just for him, but for the hardworking staff that helped him on a daily basis. Being a Michelin-star restaurant will not make Paladini change the concept of his eatery, or the prices. “We will stay true to the roots of Torno Subito and maintain the restaurant’s identity. Pressure is good and we are very conscious of what it means to have a Michelin star and will do everything to maintain it,” he added. Paladini’s recommendation to diners is to try the restaurant’s tasting menu which includes all of its signature dishes such as cocktail di gamberi, rock lobster roll, and Japanese beef. Being an internationally recognized cook, the chef’s top tip for amateur cooks was to experiment. “Everyone can cook good food, but when you are able to show emotion and passion in the food, this is what makes all the difference.” Tresind Studio’s chef Himanshu Saini
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View this post on Instagram A post shared by Himanshu Saini (@chefhimanshusaini) Not many Indian restaurants have Michelin stars and that is what makes Tresind Studio’s chef Himanshu Saini proud. He said: “It feels surreal. Being among the few Indian restaurants in the world to have a star is a great feeling. We strive to break perceptions and showcase Indian food with a different perspective.” The recognition has fueled up the chef and his team who now feel motivated to work harder. He wasted no time and immediately celebrated the award with his team after the Tuesday awards ceremony event at the Dubai Opera. Talent may be important for chefs, but Saini pointed out that hard work beats it. “Work hard because that is the only way you can evolve as a chef,” he added. He noted that the bar of expectation from his diners had now been raised. “It is a good thing because it only motivates us and keeps us on our toes to keep evolving,” he said. Tresind Studio has previously won the art of hospitality gong at the inaugural Middle East and North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants 2022 awards by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
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Armani/Ristorante’s chef Giovanni Papi
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A post shared by GIOVANNI M. PAPI (@gsupapi)
Armani/Ristorante restaurant is at Dubai’s Armani hotel.
The eatery’s chef Giovanni Papi said he feels “extremely proud and emotional as a Michelin star is a dream that each chef chases.
“We knew that Armani /Ristorante was invited for the Michelin guide revelation but (weren’t) sure about the outcome for our restaurant. But I feel confident that we are delivering the outstanding service and culinary experience at Armani/Ristorante all the time,” he told Arab News.
The restaurant, which dishes up modern Italian cooking in a luxurious atmosphere, is known for its signature dishes such as agnolotti del plin, a pasta typical of the Piedmont region of Italy, fish dish filetto di scorfano and agnello al mirto, a lamb dish.
If you plan to book a table at the newly crowned Michelin-starred restaurant, the chef suggests the signature chlorophyll risotto and Sicilian red prawns, along with the Armani/Ristorante La Sfera dessert.
DUBAI: Limited-edition Adidas shoes produced in collaboration with the UAE’s popular Pakistani eatery Ravi are being resold online for up to $12,000.
On Thursday, shoppers in the UAE queued at The Dubai Mall store to purchase the new sneakers that are part of a series of shoes celebrating iconic restaurants in 11 cities worldwide.
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Purchasers, who waited in line for hours before the shop opened its doors at 10 a.m., quickly posted their $150 sneakers online to resell them on retail apps and websites such as Dubizzle and Facebook Marketplace.
While some were on offer for between $250 and $1,090, one seller was trading the limited-edition sneakers for $12,000 on Facebook Marketplace. In a post, the seller said: “New. Legendary. 44 years = AED44,000. Fight me if you want, but you can’t fight math,” referring to the Ravi restaurant being in business for 44 years.
The eatery is one of the emirate’s most nostalgic joints which has long served as a popular dining spot for both expat and Emirati foodies alike since it opened its doors in 1978.
The no-frills outlet has also dished up Pakistani fare for a celebrity diner or two, including US rapper Snoop Dogg and pop band One Republic.
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In a twist on the Adidas Original Superstar, the special edition Superstar Ravi colorway references the Pakistani heritage of the owners and features a custom sock liner with a hand-drawn map design signifying the meaning of the name Ravi, which is a river in northeastern Pakistan.
The heel tab branding includes the year Ravi opened alongside the name in English and Arabic on either shoe. The restaurant’s owners hand-selected six dishes which have been added to the tongue of the sneakers with English on one side and Arabic on the other — the restaurant’s famous chicken biriyani and karak chai made the cut.
LONDON: Beirut has long been recognized as the Middle East’s capital of art and culture. But Lebanon’s financial crisis and political instability, and the devastating explosion at Beirut Port in August 2020, have caused the destruction of much of the city and made life increasingly difficult for its creative community.
While rebuilding continues in the much-loved Lebanese capital, architects and designers persevere to champion and commemorate the richness of its architectural heritage — modern buildings alongside Ottoman edifices; Roman and Byzantine structures in addition to stylistic nods to the Phoenicians, Umayyads, Crusaders, Mamluks, and French.
French-Lebanese architect Annabel Karim Kassar, a London Design Medal winner, has a new installation at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “The Lebanese House: Saving a Home, Saving a City” runs until August 21.
The Beirut Port blast severely damaged hundreds of heritage buildings predominantly located in the historic downtown neighborhoods of Mar Mikhaël and Gemmayzeh, many of which were already in a state of disrepair. The Lebanese government has shown little interest in restoring them.
“Just because the situation in Lebanon is a mess doesn’t mean that we have to stop talking about culture, heritage and preservation,” Kasser told Arab News. “Part of my duty and mission as an architect now is to discuss what happened to the buildings of Beirut after the explosion and raise awareness (of the need) for their preservation.”
Kassar’s installation reflects her ongoing mission to restore Bayt K, one of the few remaining classic Ottoman-Venetian homes left in the historic quarters of Gemmayzeh in Old Beirut, and one that she had been working on for several years prior to the blast. In 2017, Kasser unveiled Handle with Care, a project focusing on the conservation of Bayt K, for Beirut Design Week. The project was a public intervention emphasizing the importance of conserving and restoring the port city’s historic Ottoman-Venetian buildings, particularly in the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War and Beirut’s commercial building boom around 2014. (According to CNN, real estate purchases totaled $8.7 billion in 2014 alone and roughly 400 building projects are currently underway in the Lebanese capital.)
That boom has vanished now amid Lebanon’s political and economic crises. But Kassar’s mission to preserve Bayt K has taken on new life abroad with her V&A installation— a to-scale reconstruction of the façade of the building created by Beiruti craftsmen who came to London from Beirut. The installation was constructed by hand on site at the museum. “Tiles, marble, and other pieces from the original home are all being used in the installation in London,” she said.
The centerpiece of the installation is a triple arcade, exemplifying a trademark of traditional Lebanese architecture that dates back to the 19th century. Kassar has also reinterpreted the traditional liwan — a small salon located in the entrance hall of a typical Lebanese residence — and recreated a typical reception area, replete with long, colorful cushions, inviting the museum’s visitors to pause and contemplate the installation and its significance.
Bayt K’s reconstruction at the V&A is being used as a catalyst to further inspire the restoration and rebuilding of Beirut. The installation includes three accompanying documentary films, commissioned by Kassar, by directors Wissam Charaf and Florence Strauss that explore the emotional impact of the explosion through interviews with people from Beirut.
Since the V&A’s opening in the mid-19th century, the museum has demonstrated an interest in architectural conservation around the world. Through its Culture in Crisis program, it acts as a resource and center for the protection of the world’s cultural heritage. For example, the V&A’s editorial project, “Beirut Mapped,” explores the impact of the blast and its economic and political consequences from the perspective of the artists and writers who live there.
“Saving a Home, Saving a City,” as Kasser stresses, uses the vehicle of the Lebanese home — its preservation, its heritage and its beauty — to remind viewers of Lebanon’s rich past. A home is a place of memories, a structure where families often live for generations, and a place that becomes a crucial component of human and cultural identity.
As Kasser states: “This exhibition is not just about our homes, but about the memories of people and continuity — that is something that is missing a lot in Beirut now.
“I want people to remember their city and its history through these houses,” she continues. “This is not just about architecture; it is about memories that are transported across generations.”
DUBAI: Netflix’s new sci-fi thriller is based on a short story by award-winning author George Saunders that was published in The New Yorker — normally a guarantee of literary quality. It’s odd, then, that the film is stocked with uninspiring dialogue and a narrative that seems light on substance.
Perhaps the key is that the original material was a short story. By stretching it into a feature film, the screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (the pair responsible for the “Deadpool” movies) have failed to provide sufficient quality material to cover the extra yardage.
The “Deadpool” link is telling. Reese and Wernick attempt to slip a similar knowing humor into “Spiderhead.” It doesn’t work nearly as well with Chris Hemsworth in the lead instead of Ryan Reynolds.
Hemsworth plays the genius rogue scientist and megalomaniac Steve Abnesti, who has set up the titular state-of-the-art island penitentiary. It’s his vision of a new kind of prison system, one in which the inmates can roam around without supervision and have their own comfortable rooms. In return, they have agreed to be the subjects of Abnesti’s drug tests — drugs which alter their emotions and perceptions, including the ‘love drug’ N-40, “Laffodil,” which makes everything seem funny, and the sinister “Darkenfloxx,” which induces pain — both physical and mental.
Hemsworth’s charisma is undeniable, but he’s out of his depth here, acting-wise, failing to convince when asked to display the full gamut of emotions supposedly induced by his inventions.
Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett, as inmates Jeff and Lizzy respectively, fare much better, giving the movie an emotional heart that it doesn’t really deserve and doing far more with the by-the-numbers script than can reasonably be expected. They make “Spiderhead” mostly watchable through their convincing portrayals of two damaged people trying to find some light in the darkness of their guilt.
Director Joseph Kosinski does a mixed job. He manages to pace things well — balancing dialogue-heavy ‘science’ scenes and bursts of violent action with panache — but seems unsure exactly what he’s trying to deliver. The film’s light touches (the pink titles; the upbeat pop music; Hemsworth’s jaunty dancing) jar uncomfortably with its darker themes (the dehumanization of criminals; the ethics of altering people’s minds), and the result is unsettling. But not in an interesting way — just in a ‘Have I just wasted 107 minutes of my life?’ way.
This could have been an intriguingly dark movie. Instead, it’s another dystopian sci-fi film that’s not nearly as clever as it thinks it is.
RIYADH: Filmmaker Marios Piperides made his way for the first time from his home country of Cyprus to the Kingdom to screen “Smuggling Hendricks” to Saudi audiences in Riyadh on June 16.
The screening was part of the inaugural one-week European Film Festival, which hosted a series of 14 European films at The Esplanades’ VOX Cinema.
“Smuggling Hendricks” is based on a true story that revolves around a struggling musician, Yiannis, who plans to move away. His plans are disrupted by his dog, Jimi, crossing the border that separates the southern Greek from the Turkish north. Since the exchange of animals between the countries is prohibited, Yiannis enlists the help of a Turkish settler to retrieve his dog. The film consists of strong political and legal commentary of the issue in Cyprus, packaged in a feel-good arthouse comedy.
The filmmaker hopes to create a political discourse, share the story based on his own experience and get people to discuss “the nature of borders,” he told Arab News. “We build our own borders and keep people away, and we create this fear for the unknown.”
His film journey began 20 years ago when he came back to Cyprus after completing his studies in the US. This exchange opportunity allowed him to gain knowledge from the American film industry and contribute to the film scene back home.
This demonstration of cultural exchange parallels the initiative of the EuroFest in Riyadh, which aims to expose the Saudi people to international efforts, prompt introductions to Saudi filmmakers, and create a space for discussion.
Since the film market is competitive, the filmmaker hones in on the importance of giving an audience a reason to pursue a niche film as opposed to bigger, more accessible productions.
“I think it’s (about trying) to find a way to tell something locally, but with international appeal. If you can do that, and you can share a local story that will appeal to somebody from Cyprus or somebody from France, that’s the bet that you have to try and win . . . You have to find your own voice,” Piperides said.
As the independent film scene in Europe is struggling, and funding is becoming harder to acquire, it is a marvel that the Saudi film industry is on the rise, the filmmaker said. While there were only 14 movie theaters on the island, Saudi is currently home to more than 50 sites.
“Coming from a small country, it’s very important to have this opportunity to exchange and understand each other’s culture through cinema,” Piperides said.
“The good thing here is that you have a big market that we don’t have in Cyprus. You have a growing market that starves for film. The whole thing is new. In Europe now, their attendance is going down,” he said during a talk as part of the side events calendar of the festival, moderated by TV and radio personality Muhammad Bajnaid.
For the filmmaker, cinemas create a space for people to share their experiences, views and opinions and open up the floor for discussion about specific issues. “The cinema in Cyprus, during the 50s, or till the 80s — it was huge. There were a lot of cinemas. In a small village with two to 3,000 people, there were six cinemas. And now there is only one art house cinema, and it’s struggling,” Piperides said.
“It’s important to see if they can do a parallel program,” he said.
While this is the first European Film Festival in Riyadh, a way to improve this is to bring arthouse and independent films to the capital and neighboring cities and towns.
“It’s important also to have smaller art house theaters. To show more, not only European, more arthouse films, not only blockbusters, American, Bollywood, or Egyptian. I believe there is an audience (for that).”
Arthouse films are renowned for dealing with complex issues that cater to a niche genre as opposed to a mass audience, making them less popular with global markets. “Distributors are not bringing (European art films) because there’s no way to get their money back. Through festivals, you can see good films that otherwise you wouldn’t have the opportunity to,” he said.
The film first premiered in 2018 and has been screened in multiple regions across the globe. “It’s still nice to see that it’s still fresh, still interesting. It’s still current because nothing changed, basically — the political situation in Cyprus. And it deals with borders also which is still (an issue).”
In a way, the film documents the evolution of not just the director’s skills, but also the industry itself. Piperides highlights the crucial role of reflecting on past works and continuously criticizing. “I see mistakes that I did or more directing-wise, the technique, the script, things that could have been better . . . At the time, this is what I knew. You learn and you try to do better things. Being critical about yourself and your work is important.”