Content
From talent-led stories to high-volume formats.
Aly
Solayman
food films director / creative producer
A spoonful of a storyteller, a pinch of a maker and a sprinkle of a cinematographer, garnished with culinary experience.
introduction
Aly's career in food films and content runs on a triad of cinematography, storytelling, and engineering
Studied cinematography in 2014 at the High Institute of Cinema in Cairo and shaped by high-end filmmaking, feature films, TV series and TVCs
In 2016, he co-founded zest, a food content production house, the sweet spot where all three passions evolved. Built and developed the product, from the first pilot video to the full teams behind a wide variety of formats.
Along the way, he developed a broad culinary palette, collaborating with everyone from homecooks, food bloggers and enthusiasts to professional chefs
Approaching food as a storytelling medium, he found his way into visual engineering, building rigs from LEGO to different digital fabrication tools to tell mouth-watering stories
10+years
200+brands
2000+videos
what i do
TEN YEARS AT ZEST
01
Food Films Director
Hands-on directing and shooting across every format: commercials, recipe videos, and long-form YouTube shows.
02
Creative Producer
Owning campaigns from creative to delivery: making the product the hero, and carrying its story through food integration and product placement.
03
Visual Engineering
Designing and building SFX rigs, from LEGO to pneumatics and digital fabrication tools, developing the ideas from the creative brief through to execution on set.
04
Team Building & Leadership
Built and led the in-house videography and editing teams plus an external bench of directors and DOPs, scaling production value and building consistency.
05
Systems & Infrastructure
Designed the production and post pipeline end to end: workflows, gear, QC, and the documentation that keeps quality consistent at volume.
how i lead
Senior management with hands still on the work
01
Strategy & Planning
Contributing at company-level strategic and annual planning, setting product and technical objectives, managing execution, and reporting on the results.
02
Quality at Scale
Overseeing output quality on every delivery, with hands-on troubleshooting in production and post. Authoring the content guides that made the standard repeatable across teams.
03
Team Development
Ran technical and creative workshops across teams, coloring for editors and production, food integration for creatives, plus screening sessions to sharpen collective taste.
04
Process & Documentation
Mapping and documenting products and formats: show layouts, product specs and technical requirement docs so the operation runs on systems, not memory.
Commercials
Making food both the hero and the story.
▶ watchLuna Tomato Paste
A one-shot-like rollercoaster of the tomato paste as the backbone of every kitchen, from packs in the cabinet to fresh tomatoes and sizzling paste, closing on the finished dishes.
Creative, directing, and grading. Designed and built the rigs that made food an actor, not a prop: one spread paste across the pan on cue, another launched tomatoes into frame.
creative · director · rigs · color
▶ watchCookievore Army
Their slogan was "join the cookievore army," so took it literally, an actual army of cookies marching. Six multi-pass takes, 150 frames each, animated one frame at a time at 25fps
Creative, and building the LEGO rig that drove the jumping motion in precise and consistent increments across every take
creative · stopmotion · rigs · color
▶ watchNada Plant-based Milk
The launch of Nada's plant-based milk range, built around a fresh approach, a tabletop ad plus six recipe videos, linked to the packs by a QR code that take us straight into the cooking
Led the creative and treatment for campaign. Directed both ad and recipes, and built the rigs that poured the milk cleanly and moved the packs on cue.
creative · director · rigs · color
▶ watchSunbulah Nuts
Split between live-action moments where the nuts save the day and a tabletop sequence, shot on a phantom at 1000fps, that delivered the explosive payoff after the rescue
Developed and directed the tabletop sequence alongside the main copy's director. Built, and operated rigs that made precision and repeatability a strength not a constraint.
creative · co-director · rigs
▶ watchMolto Forni Pizza
An opening that delivers on the promise, "from freezer to oven directly," complemented by baking, the cut, and a cheese pull, because no pizza ad is without one.
All the subtle SFX details that sold the objective, like cutting into the oven for a closer perspective of the pizza so it reads bigger and hotter.
creative · director · rigs · color
▶ watchLuna Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
A playful spot where a kid, caught in the kitchen, spins her parents a tall tale of how the chocolate jar magically flew and made her a sandwich by itself, definitely not her.
From concept to building the rigs behind the "magic" and the jar's hero move, spinning while sliding across the table as its lid opens and flies.
creative producer · rigs
▶ watchLuna Revamp
A five-copy brand refresh, where the packs spin into the new branding
creative · director · rigs · color
▶ watchYamama Spreads
A Ramadan campaign: one VO-led tabletop ad plus five recipe videos
creative producer
▶ watchAbuauf Billboards
A seamless billboard loop, where each nut sinks into its liquid.
creative · director · rigs
▶ watchMeat & Livestock Australia
A chef-led ad with a food-shots core, as his VO carries the copy
creative producer · shooting
Shows
Long-form shows where food become the medium
▶ watchRoasted
A roasting show where five comedians on vacation take turns hosting dinner for each other every night, with one objective: impress the table, or get roasted.
Developed the format into defined segments. On the ground, ran the camera crew across 10+ locations and multiple units over six shooting days, making the most of a small team.
creative producer · shooting
▶ watchIndetanglable Mess
A game show where every ten minutes stations rotate at random. Each cook inherits whatever the last one started, to finish it or sabotage it.
Developed, tested the game design, and shaped it into a show structure, On the ground, oversaw the build of the rotating stations and ran the camera crew with a 10 cameras setup.
creative producer · shooting
▶ watchThe Tastiest Wins
A light cooking challenge across generations, where influencers and their parents are challenged to cook a recipe from the other's era, then sit down with friends and relatives to eat and talk it over.
Show structure, then laid out the kitchen so the pairs had to cross paths. Onboarded the director and DOP on the food side of the shoot.
creative producer
▶ watchExtra Butter
A cooking show where the chef let the raw kitchen energy show, No prep or swap-outs, putting the viewer in the kitchen as it actually feels, with butter somewhere in every dish.
Developed the structure that could hold the chaos without taming it. On the ground, shot with a small, agile crew, then oversaw the edit to keep every episode feeling the same.
creative producer · shooting
Talent-led
The person leads. A host, chef, or personality anchors the content.
▶ watchTalabat Mart Kitchen
Presenting Nadia El Sayed in a more visually elevated format, keeping her authenticity intact
creative producer · co-director · shooting
▶ watchL'Artisan
Avec Karim's new foie gras line, told through his own story and how he cooks with each one.
creative producer · director · shooting · color
▶ watchKitchen Keys
Light format presenting Sara El Refaie's kitchen tips and tricks
shooting
▶ watchWaha Appliances
Chef Wessam's simple and creative recipes built around Wahaʼs appliances
shooting · director
Content-led
The information sets the direction, the visuals drive. More dynamic formats, weighted toward craft.
▶ watchEby’s Bakehouse
creative producer · director · color
1 video
▶ watchTanmiah
creative producer · color
14 videos
▶ watchNada Plant-based Milk Recipes
creative · director · color
4 videos
▶ watchYamama Spreads
creative producer
4 videos
▶ watchMolto Forni Puff Pastry
creative producer
8 videos
▶ watchHow to?
creative producer . shooting . color
14 videos
High volume
A repeatable format built to scale, where consistency and speed matter as much as the craft.
▶ watchTop-down recipes
Simple fast-paced top-view recipes, where the recipe is clear, food is real and edible to build trust, made for volume with a consistent quality.
Started from the pilot video as a one-man crew, then steadily building the process and team that scaled with consistency and adaptability to deliver up to 60 videos a month.
Collaborating with a wide range of talents and clients while scaling the operation is what broadened my culinary experience and built my instinct for production and leadership.
work 04 / 05
Culture & Documentaries
Food as a story and purpose
▶ watchThe Melting Pot Foundation
The Melting Pot Foundation's first program in the region, a pilot in Cairo following Bolivia and Morocco.
The film follows the trainees and their dreams through the program, from the kitchen training to the dinner they cook and present at the end.
creative · director · shooting · color
▶ watchCooking by the sea
A chef who left the city for the coast, told through his story and the dishes he started developing once he got there.
shot on location where he lives, with the dishes as the through-line rather than a recipe to follow
director · shooting
▶ watchAfrican Barista Exchange Program
Reflections from participants in the African Barista Exchange Program
creative producer · director · shooting
▶ watchHelween
A motion graphics based one-minute explainers that tells a story of food culture or history subject
Co-creative · creative producer
▶ watchIngredients Hunt
Following a chef and his team across Egypt, hunting its overlooked ingredients to find a new inspiration
director · shooting
Community
Initiatives to build community around food, outside the long production days.
Zest cooks
A weekly game where a different employee cooks for the office and gets judged on taste, presentation, and the whole experience.
all to encourage the office to step into the kitchen, from a belief that cooking helps you see food better on set
Food Gatherings
Cooking bringing together the talents, collaborators and wider zest circle, for something that wasn't a shoot.
A way to build community around food and tabletop, outside the long production days
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