The kitchen everyone wanted to see
Chef Ana Ruiz runs three kitchens and had no time to post. We film one prep morning a month and let her talk.
Client
Fennel & Fig, restaurant group
Format
Founder-led
Platforms
TikTok, Reels
Cadence
20 videos a month
The brief
Fennel & Fig has three restaurants in Los Angeles and a chef people already wanted to hear from. Their Instagram was plates photographed from above and the occasional event poster. Weekdays were full; weekends weren't, which is the wrong way round for a restaurant.
Ana was happy to talk but didn't want a camera crew in the way during service. The restaurants also needed bookings, not just followers, so every video had to point somewhere useful.
What we made
Ana on camera, in the kitchen, before service. One half-day shoot a month at the Highland Park location while the team preps, with a different topic each time: a dish, a supplier, a mistake. We never stage cooking for the camera; we film what's already happening and ask her about it.
Twenty videos a month, posted Thursday to Saturday when people are deciding where to eat. Every caption ends with the location and a booking link in the bio.
We film in the two hours before the doors open, with one camera and a lav mic, and we're gone before the first table sits down. Staff pick the dish of the week, so the kitchen sees the videos as theirs, not marketing's.
A clip we’d show anyone
"Line check, 4:45pm" is fifteen minutes before doors open, sped up to 29 seconds. Ana tastes everything on the line and sends one sauce back. Nobody talks to the camera, and it's the clip new hires say they watched before applying.
What moved
Four months in, from Fennel & Fig's reservation system across all three locations. Summer helps every restaurant, so we also checked the same months last year: up 19%. Past results, not a promise.
People come in and ask for the dish we almost cut. That never happened from a photo.
Ana Ruiz
Chef and co-owner, Fennel & Fig
Next project ·
Northbrew