Zuma Dubai’s new director of operations, Ajaz Sheikh, talks to Caterer Middle East about life outside hotels, brand expansion and the Middle East’s culinary progress…
You came to Zuma Dubai from the UK about four months ago — but you’ve worked in this region before, haven’t you?
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Yes, in fact I grew up in Dubai, from 1987 to ’93.
Then I went to Switzerland to study hotel management, after which I moved to the States to do a Bachelor’s Degree in hotel administration.
During that, I spent time working at the Marriott Marquee, which is the second largest Marriott in the world; and when we opened their steakhouse there, I realised I had a real passion for F&B.
After that I returned to the UAE, and my first job was at Le Méridien Abu Dhabi in around 1999, opening their F&B Village.
After that I transferred to Le Méridien Picadilly, in London, where I was assistant F&B manager for two years, then joined Mandarin Oriental on Hyde Park Corner, also as assistant F&B manager.
Two years later I went to The Conrad in Chelsea Harbour, then I got picked up by the Lanesborough, which was a fantastic opportunity.
I was hired as F&B director, then promoted to executive assistant manager.
One of my main projects was refurbishing the restaurants. We brought Heinz Beck there, and got a Michelin star in five months — just before I left — which was a fantastic achievement.
Why did you decide it was time to move on?
It was a lot of fun, but I wondered whether I would be able to do the same sort of thing somewhere else — The Lanesborough was not very corporate, and I’m not sure how I would handle the change to, say, a large brand.
So I decided to go and work in a different kind of role; I knew Rainer [Becker, Zuma co-founder], and when the role came up they asked me if I was interested.
The idea of coming back to the Middle East did appeal to me, being close to family and so on; but also Rainer is a real visionary who speaks form his heart and knows what he wants, and I think he was looking for people who understood where he was coming from.
I mean, your heart’s got to be in it — the Middle East is probably going to be the biggest expansion for us over the next couple of years.
And I really believed in that vision and philosophy that Zuma is built on.
So what’s the plan regarding further expansion?
Obviously, we’re going to expand in the States further at some point, but after the Miami outlet we’re just a little bit dubious, because it’s been so hard opening a concept there.
So now that’s done and dusted, the Middle East is our next focus — and there is a lot more to do here.
Zuma Dubai has done so well for us; the people understand the concept, it’s been welcomed. Obviously there are things we need to work on here, to consolidate what we have, but there’s so much more potential as well.
Of course, we’re not going to go rushing in, opening up outlets all over the place; we like to get established, train our staff and secure the basics before moving on.
Zuma is self-owned, so there are no partners or shareholders to answer to; the brand is the most important thing, for us. We will not franchise, we want to control it 100%, and that’s one of the reasons we went to DIFC for the first outlet here, rather than a hotel.
We can’t have anyone telling us we can’t do this and that — we work very differently to a hotel, and I know that because I’m a hotelier!
Here, things get done. There are no questions or red tape, and I love that about stand-alone outlets.
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