How celebrity chef Alain Ducasse’s charity project changed a Maghreb immigrant’s life

A Moroccan-born mother of three from a grim Parisian suburb, Naima Benazzouz's life changed with the aid of a philanthropic gesture from the celebrity chef Alain Ducasse.

Naima Benazzouz says at first she only knew Moroccan cuisine but has picked up classic gourmet dishes, which she recreates at home. Valentin Bontemps / AFP

The future looked unpromising when Naima Benazzouz arrived in France – a Muslim immigrant from the Maghreb who discovered her university diploma was not recognised.

But after 12 years of struggle, stuck in a bleak Parisian suburb and bringing up three children, her life changed with the aid of a philanthropic gesture from the celebrity chef Alain Ducasse.

“A gift from the skies” is how Benazzouz describes the opportunity Ducasse gave her, and women like her, to break free from a spiral of unemployment or underachievement.

The door he opened has enabled her to complete a journey from the outskirts of Marrakech, where she grew up, to the grandeur of the Matignon, the official residence of French prime ministers.

There Benazzouz helps prepare the haute cuisine served to the great and the good attending official functions at one of France’s principal symbols of high office.

Each year, Ducasse’s project, Women with a Future, enlists 15 women, immigrants or French-born of minority-ethnic origin, to undergo a year-long professional cooking course.

Aides to the top chef says Benazzouz proved herself an “undoubted success”, the star of a course that gave her the foundation for a high-profile start to a career in catering. Since being recruited by Hôtel Matignon, she has served under the premierships of François Fillon and, now, Jean-Marc Ayrault.

“And she’s doing very well,” says Aude Nouailhetas, a spokes­woman for the project. “We are delighted with what she and many others have achieved.”

Competition for places on the cooking course is intense. Benazzouz was among 84 applicants for 15 spots. “A lot of immigrants apply,” Nouailhetas says. “But there are also those born in France, perhaps of Maghrebin, eastern European or African origin.”

Ducasse, whose string of luxury restaurants includes establishments in Paris, London, New York, Doha and Hong Kong as well as Monaco, of which he is now a citizen, describes his project as a way of helping women suffering “social and professional exclusion”.

It operates in conjunction with public authorities, provides a basic income during training and aims to lift barriers faced by women trying to better themselves despite childcare obligations and problems of mobility.

“I always loved to cook,” says Benazzouz, who travels daily to the Matignon, in the chic seventh arrondissement of Paris, from the low-income area of Chantepie, in Sarcelles, south of the capital.

“But never, to be honest, did I imagine that I would ever work in top-class gastronomy, even less at the prime minister’s residence.”

Benazzouz always believed in her own abilities but admits that life was tough and discouraging on arriving in France. “My baccalaureate was recognised but not my deug [a higher-education qualification]. I took a course in management but with the births of my children, I soon found myself back on the sidelines.”

She jumped at the chance of joining the Ducasse project. “Selection was based on motivation,” she says. “For once a woman with children, living in Sarcelles, was not a handicap.”

Previously unadventurous with food, Benazzouz is constantly learning new kitchen techniques, working with meat, fish, pastry and desserts. “Originally, I knew only Moroccan cuisine,” she says. “Now I know all the classic gourmet cuisine. At home, I try to recreate all the dishes I learn at work. My new speciality is chocolate cake – the children have become completely addicted.”

Benazzouz says she is living a dream and is perfectly happy with the way her job is going. But she is hard-pressed to identify the dish she most likes to prepare. “I enjoy international cuisine generally and do not really have a favourite,” she says. “I pick up new ideas all the time.”

Women such as Benazzouz are fortunate that Ducasse has been willing to divert a small part of his fortune into the lower end of his trade.

At a reception in December held at Paris’s Café de la Paix, where several of the women have trained, graduates from the last intake heard the president of the regional council announce that it was joining the bodies supporting the scheme. Ducasse hopes the example will lead to similar initiatives in other areas.

In his speech, he thanked fellow chefs and colleagues for helping the project to accomplish its aims.

“It’s a team effort,” he said. “At first you do not know if it will work. You try, sometimes you make mistakes, but you keep on advancing. In the end, everyone’s a winner.”

Turning to the women, he added: “There are so many architects of the success of Women with a Future. But you, ladies, your will and your work, are its real authors. Bravo for showing it was possible.”

* With additional reporting by AFP