What are you trying to achieve?

Firstly, work out what you are trying to make. PR for PR’s sake is pretty pointless so establish what you want to achieve first, then you can test, measure and tweak it as you go. If a table of six sat down and asked you for your recommendation you wouldn’t just begin banging the pots and pans around making a lot of noise about “something spicy with meat in it”. On the contrary, you’d work out what you have in your store cupboard, what you have in fresh today from local suppliers, what the guests have told you they like and then, if you can, you’d add a little seasonal twist.

Do the same with this PR opportunity. As this is your first foray into PR we’ll imagine this as the starter. Why? Good PR needs a continuous flow of information, not one-off hits. You want your next dish to be just as tasty as the last so the critics and reviewers (the press) keep coming back for more and giving you better reviews each time.

Find out what the press wants

So, what do the guests/the press want? Ask them. You’ve seen Gordon Ramsay et al scuttling around the local area drumming up support from the natives and getting guidance, so outline your offering (in this case, the only gallery in Nottingham to be accredited to the scheme) to the local and regional press via a brief phone call to whet their appetite and sharpen your knives.

Don’t treat all of them as having the same tastes with a one-size-fits-all bcc email to a list, it is lazy practice and it simply doesn’t work. Sure, you may be offering them all steak but at least check to see how they want it and with what sauce. Your sauces are your angles: local business doing well, local business and local artists working together, local business and local customer.

Add a dash of colour

I liked Rosie’s suggestion about using a customer as a case study. Perhaps add a dash more colour to the dish with a serving of local artist and mix in some seasonality by finding one that is currently exhibiting. Another way to serve your dish might be along the investment, money saving or amateur collectors line - explain that maybe art is not so inaccessible after all.

People and pictures of people sell stories. You have that in abundance so get cracking and create a range of simple dishes to suit all tastes. You’ll soon have them eating out of your hands and have other diners flocking to try it for themselves.