There are scents that make you happy, scents that excite you and scents that instantly take you back to childhood. For Imad Alarnab, the smell of cumin and mint will always remind him of cooking in the grand courtyard houses of Damascus, covered with jasmine, fruit trees and blankets of sunlight.

He was one of the most famous chefs in the Syrian capital. His restaurants, known for serving generous portions and their air of unhindered familiarity and warmth, were popular throughout the year.

But then came the war, and the tragedy, and the loss. Two of Alarnab’s restaurants were bombed. In July 2015, he left Damascus in the night to make the long and perilous journey to England in search of a safer life for him and his family. He drove to Lebanon, flew to Turkey, took a boat to Greece – “there was 54 of us in a nine-person boat” – and walked to Macedonia and then Serbia and Hungary. In Calais, he and 13 other Syrians slept on a church step for 64 days.

When he arrived in the UK, he worked as a car salesman. But eventually, with the help of several charities, he picked up his passion again. He opened a series of pop-up restaurants in the heart of London that sold out every night. His newest restaurant, Imad’s Choose Love Kitchen, has just extended its opening until at least the end of June due to popular demand.

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Imad Alarnab in Imad’s Choose Love Kitchen. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Close to the flower market on Columbia Road in Bethnal Green, Imad’s Choose Love Kitchen invites customers to “experience the true taste of Syria”.

This time round, instead of cooking for himself, Alarnab wanted to help people in desperate situations back home. All the profits from the restaurant are used to fund Hope Hospital, which has saved tens of thousands of lives in Aleppo.

Hope was the first crowdfunded hospital in early 2016, providing incubators for newborns, treatments for pregnant and postnatal women and lifesaving surgical operations to those injured in the seven-year conflict.

It is the only paediatric hospital in the Aleppo region, serving more than 250,000 people. Thanks to Alarnab and others’ work, the hospital can stay open for at least another month, according to Help Refugees.

“Food is the biggest part of Syrian culture. We cannot have a plan without food,” Alarnab told the Guardian. “Food brings people together. When we were in Calais, at first the neighbours of the church didn’t appreciate our presence there. And I can totally understand that, but we were 14 desperate Syrians with no other solution. In time we were cooking for all our neighbours.”

In Calais, Alarnab and his fellow travellers had just a picnic stool, one bowl and one knife, but this was all they needed to cater for up to 50 people.

“One neighbour at the beginning was really difficult. He would shout at us ‘go away, go back’. One day we went fishing and I said to him ‘I know you are mad at us, and have every right to be, but put that all aside and please try this fish’.

“He said ‘I don’t take charity from anyone, I need to pay something for it’. I told him ‘you can’t but if you want to do me a favour please charge my phone’. Soon, he would charge all of our phones at his house for two hours every day.”

Alarnab said he made some of his best friends in Calais. “They would come and ask about us, check if we needed anything. One of my best friends now was there every morning to bring us tea and write on a piece of paper ‘good morning, I love you’ with a smiley face and just leave it there. It’s the kind of thing that gives you hope, reminds you there is still humanity on earth.”

Imad’s Choose Love Kitchen serves traditional three-course Syrian meals and is fully staffed by Help Refugees volunteers. Everything on the menu is a dish his mother cooked in Syria.

“The best cook ever was my mum,” he said. “I remember how everyone would tell her how great her food was and ask her to teach them recipes.”

Less than two months after Alarnab arrived in England his mother died. “She would be really proud of me,” he said. “She used to say ‘we make money, money doesn’t makes us’. She knew even if I lost everything, I could build my life back up again. The only loss is when you lose someone like her.”

Josie Naughton, the chief executive of Help Refugees, said they wanted to create something positive amid the chaos that has embroiled both west and east.

“The recent bombing campaigns in Syria have been absolutely atrocious and we knew we had to do something to help,” she said. “A place where the British public can see refugees contributing to the culture of Britain, and at the same time give people a simple, practical way to help those most in need.”

While it was “amazing to go back to cooking”, Alarnab said his biggest relief comes when his customers leave the restaurant saying, ‘wow, this is the best falafel I’ve had’ or ‘tell me, Imad, how did you do this hummus?’.”