The maître d' will be with you in a moment

DUBAI // At 22, Ahlam Bolooki is a young woman in a hurry. She has already opened a restaurant while holding down a full-time job at another, and is now preparing for the launch of a third.
She opened Sapne, an Indian restaurant at Beach Park Plaza, with her aunt, Fahima Shaiban, three months ago, while working in management at Rivington Grill, a British restaurant - with just a two-hour break each day between the two.
Last month she trained for two weeks at The Ivy in London, and she is now preparing for the launch of The Ivy Dubai, where she will be an assistant maître d'.
All that activity, she says, has inevitably meant the lines between work and home becoming blurred.
"I learnt that you can't divide your work and home time," she says. "You have to do something that you really love to feel like you don't want to divide them. There are no boundaries for me and that's the real balance."
As an Emirati, Ms Bolooki says being a good host came naturally. She was also concerned that most tourists who visited the UAE had no contact with locals, and wanted to help change that.
"Many times I've been told that it was the first time someone had spoken to an Emirati woman. I think it's important for us to greet them in our country.
"We have to show them what we're about because people tend to be curious about our culture but they tend to scare away from approaching us."
She even took some female colleagues home to meet her family, to Emirati weddings or to Bastakiya, a historical area of Dubai.
"I think it's crucial to give them that experience and I enjoy doing it through my work."
Sapne is truly a family business. Her brother designed the logo, her father put in the money, and her aunt helps to manage it.
"It complements what I want in my career, to be able to learn what it takes to open a restaurant and all the small things that, as a customer, you don't think about," she said.
The restaurant is doing particularly well among Emiratis, who make up some 90 per cent of its customers.
"Indian is very similar to Emirati food, it's just different spices and different ways of cooking but most Emiratis love it and it's definitely my favourite."
She studied international hospitality at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in Dubai. "For me, it was all about the people and interacting with them," she said. "The classes were very hands-on and there's so much action going on."
It taught her the work of a chef through practical training. She also focused on learning about women in the hospitality industry and their work on life balance.
"The UAE's new generation is very much independent and going into fields they're interested in instead of the traditional ways where Emirati women would not necessarily work."
Her love of hospitality is rare among Emirati girls, she says - "they shy away from the industry, which is a shame.
"It's disappointing for us Emiratis not to be a part of it. I want to be a part of that growth and be successful while contributing to my country's development.
"It's my way of giving something back."
 
cmalek@thenational.ae