From Chocolate Expert to Entrepreneur

From championing culinary talent to building locally produced concepts, the woman known as Madame Chocolat is turning more than 15 years of industry experience into a new food ecosystem in Dubai.

Some careers follow a straight line. Others evolve as experience, encounters and ideas gradually reveal a much bigger purpose.

Zeyneb Larabi’s journey belongs to the second category.

Known across the industry as Madame Chocolat, Zeyneb has spent more than 15 years working across the Middle East and international markets at the intersection of premium chocolate, hospitality, retail and travel retail. But chocolate has always been only one part of the story.

Her career has been shaped by people as much as products: chefs, creative talents, brands, hospitality partners and teams. Over the years, she has developed a particular ability to connect these different worlds-bringing together culinary creativity, brand vision and commercial opportunity.

Today, that experience is becoming the foundation for a new entrepreneurial chapter focused on food innovation, local production, talent and collaboration in the UAE.

The Making of Madame Chocolat

Chocolate may have given Zeyneb her nickname, but it also gave her an extraordinary lens through which to understand the food industry.

Premium chocolate sits at the intersection of craftsmanship, creativity, hospitality, branding, consumer experience and storytelling. Throughout her career with leading chocolate houses including Valrhona and Villars, Zeyneb worked across these different dimensions, from developing retail and travel retail strategies to building partnerships with airlines, airports, hospitality groups and chefs.

Yet one of the most defining aspects of her journey has been her relationship with the culinary community.

Earlier in her career, Zeyneb became deeply involved in the evolution of the Middle Eastern chocolate and pastry scene, building close relationships with chefs and actively

championing their talent. Her role went far beyond introducing premium chocolate: she worked alongside pastry chefs, chocolatiers and culinary teams, creating opportunities for them to experiment, innovate and bring greater visibility to their craft.

Through collaborations, demonstrations, events and industry initiatives, she helped connect chefs with brands, audiences and new opportunities. Rather than placing the product at the centre, her approach increasingly focused on the people creating with it.

It is an approach that would later become central to her entrepreneurial vision.

From Culinary Creativity to Commercial Opportunity

Working across international markets also gave Zeyneb an understanding of another side of the food industry: how creativity becomes commercially relevant.

A beautiful product or innovative recipe is only the beginning. To succeed, an idea also needs the right positioning, production model, customer experience, storytelling and route to market.

Zeyneb’s experience across retail, hospitality and travel retail exposed her to all of these elements.

Working with global brands, airlines, airports and retailers allowed her to understand how consumer expectations differ across markets and how emotion, personalisation and local relevance can transform a product into an experience.

It also reinforced a principle that has followed her throughout her career: the strongest food concepts are rarely created in isolation. They emerge when chefs, brands, producers and commercial minds work together.

Building Beyond Chocolate

Today, Zeyneb is taking that philosophy beyond the world of chocolate.

Rather than building around a single product category, her entrepreneurial direction is increasingly centred on creating connections between culinary talent, brands, food production and market opportunities.

Her various initiatives reflect different parts of that vision, but Lab Hub Studios is perhaps the clearest expression of where those experiences are coming together.

Turning Ideas Into Products at Lab Hub Studios

Launched in Dubai in 2025, Lab Hub Studios sits at the intersection of culinary creativity, product development and local production.

The studio works with hospitality businesses, chefs, entrepreneurs and brands to

transform ideas into commercially viable, locally produced food concepts.

Its ambition goes beyond being simply a production kitchen.

Lab Hub is designed as a space where ideas can move from concept and recipe development through testing, production and ultimately to market. It responds to a growing need among businesses that want to innovate without necessarily building their own production infrastructure.

For Zeyneb, it also represents the opportunity to apply more than 15 years of industry experience in a very tangible way.

She brings a commercial perspective to culinary development-looking not only at how a product tastes, but at how it can be positioned, produced, packaged, experienced and successfully brought to market.

At the same time, Lab Hub allows her to continue something that has been present throughout her career: working closely with chefs and creative talent while giving their ideas the structure and support needed to grow.

Building From the UAE

The location of this next chapter is significant.

Dubai has evolved into a global meeting point for chefs, hospitality groups, entrepreneurs and international food brands. At the same time, the conversation around local production and Made in UAE products is becoming increasingly important.

For Zeyneb, this creates an opportunity to combine international expertise with local capability.

The ambition is not simply to reproduce what already exists elsewhere, but to help create products and concepts from the UAE that reflect the creativity, diversity and international character of the market-and that may eventually have the potential to travel beyond it.

In this sense, Lab Hub represents more than production. It is part of a broader belief that Dubai can increasingly become a place where food concepts are not only consumed or imported, but imagined, developed and produced.

Creating Platforms for Talent and Collaboration

The same philosophy extends beyond production.

Across her different initiatives, Zeyneb has increasingly focused on creating platforms that connect people and opportunities.

Her work with chefs established that instinct early in her career. Today, it is evolving into a broader approach that brings together culinary talent, entrepreneurs, brands and industry partners.

This is also reflected in Her Table, a community initiative created to spotlight and connect women founders and leaders across the food and beverage ecosystem.

The objective is not simply visibility, but connection-creating opportunities for mentorship, collaboration, knowledge sharing and professional growth.

For Zeyneb, this reflects a fundamental belief about entrepreneurship: very few successful ideas are built alone.

Behind strong businesses are chefs, teams, mentors, partners and communities willing to share knowledge, open doors and challenge one another.

Leadership Through Empowerment

That belief has also shaped Zeyneb’s approach to leadership.

Her career has evolved from supporting chefs and building brands to leading international teams and, increasingly, creating environments where others can develop their own ideas.

For her, leadership is less about being at the centre and more about creating the conditions for people to contribute, take ownership and grow.

That philosophy has been recognised within the travel retail industry, where she has been acknowledged for an inclusive approach to team leadership.

But its influence can perhaps be seen more clearly across the different stages of her career.

She championed chefs and their creativity. She built and empowered teams. She created platforms for women to connect. And today, through entrepreneurship, she is helping provide brands and culinary talents with the infrastructure to transform ideas into real products and businesses.

There is a clear thread connecting all of these chapters: creating opportunities for people and ideas to move forward.

A New Kind of Food Entrepreneur

What makes Zeyneb’s next chapter interesting is precisely that it is difficult to define through one conventional title.

She is not simply a chocolatier, nor only a commercial leader or entrepreneur.

Her experience sits between several worlds: chefs and brands, creativity and business, international expertise and local production.

That ability to connect different parts of the food ecosystem may ultimately become her strongest differentiator.

After more than 15 years inside the premium food industry, she understands how global brands operate, how chefs create, how hospitality businesses think, how consumers experience products and how commercial opportunities are built.

Her entrepreneurial journey is now about bringing those perspectives together.

The Story Beyond Chocolate

Chocolate may have opened the first door, but it no longer defines the destination.

What connects the different chapters of Zeyneb Larabi’s career is a consistent instinct for bringing people, ideas and opportunities together-from championing chefs and developing premium brands to building teams, supporting entrepreneurs and creating locally produced food concepts.

Madame Chocolat remains part of her identity, but the story has become considerably bigger than chocolate.

As Dubai strengthens its position as a global food and hospitality hub, Zeyneb’s next chapter is increasingly focused on what can be created from the UAE: products, businesses, talent and ideas with the potential to travel far beyond it.

And perhaps that is the natural evolution of her journey-from representing some of the world’s most recognised names in chocolate to helping create the next generation of food ideas from Dubai.

Follow Zeyneb Larabi on Instagram

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