How Harper Fine Dining secured more than 80 published articles through chef-led expert PR
Harper Fine Dining
Private chef and fine dining business
Harper Fine Dining worked with Fair Public Relations on a two-year PR campaign centred around the expertise of founder and qualified chef Dean Harper.
By positioning Dean as a practical, credible culinary expert, the campaign created a sustained stream of media opportunities covering cooking, food safety, kitchen equipment, food trends, seasonal advice and professional chef techniques.
Across the campaign period, the supplied coverage records show more than 80 published articles and syndicated pieces across national, consumer, food, lifestyle and homes media.
The client
Dean Harper is a qualified chef and the founder of Harper Fine Dining.
With a background influenced by classical French cuisine alongside modern culinary trends, Dean founded his own private chef service in 2013. It developed into Harper Fine Dining, providing private dining and culinary experiences focused on food, wine, presentation and service.
Dean's professional experience gave the PR campaign something particularly valuable: a broad area of expertise that could be applied to everyday questions journalists regularly write about.
The opportunity
The campaign was not dependent on repeatedly promoting Harper Fine Dining itself.
Instead, we could use Dean's professional culinary knowledge to contribute useful expert commentary to articles journalists were already developing.
The potential subject matter was broad.
Dean could discuss everything from preparing Christmas dinner and cooking the perfect roast potatoes to food storage, kitchen appliances, food safety, ingredients and emerging food trends.
That created opportunities across national newspapers as well as homes, lifestyle, consumer and specialist food publications.
The PR strategy
We positioned Dean as an accessible chef and culinary expert who could translate professional kitchen knowledge into practical advice for ordinary consumers.
The campaign combined proactive expert-led ideas with reactive journalist opportunities.
Topics included:
cooking techniques
food preparation
food safety
kitchen appliances
air fryers
ovens and microwaves
ingredient advice
food storage
seasonal cooking
Christmas food
BBQ preparation
professional kitchen techniques
food trends
restaurant and hospitality insight
kitchen design and organisation
The aim was not to force Harper Fine Dining into every article.
Dean's expertise needed to stand on its own and genuinely help the journalist answer the question their audience was interested in.
Turning professional expertise into consumer stories
One reason chef-led PR can work particularly well is that professional knowledge can be applied to subjects people encounter every day.
During the campaign, Dean contributed to articles covering subjects such as:
different methods of ageing meat
food safety over Christmas
stopping egg whites becoming watery
foods that should not go into a slow cooker
choosing a toaster
kitchen island hobs
meal-preparation trends
sandwiches and changing food trends
cottage cheese
olive oil fraud
keeping bread and other food fresh
cooking crispy bacon
instant noodles
dehydrating fruit in an air fryer
sharpening kitchen knives
pizza-making
cinnamon buns
BBQ preparation
preventing bread from becoming mouldy
storing eggs
roast potatoes
gravy
French toast
pantry storage
oven mistakes
pancakes
organising a fridge during a power cut
replacing non-stick frying pans
grilling burgers
This gave the campaign considerable longevity because Dean's expertise could be applied to new seasonal stories, consumer questions and emerging trends throughout the year.
Media coverage
Across the two-year campaign, the coverage records supplied for Harper Fine Dining contain more than 80 published media items, including original articles and syndicated coverage.
Selected publications included:
The Telegraph
The Observer
The Independent
MailOnline
The Sun
Daily Express
Daily Mirror
TIME
U.S. News & World Report
Yahoo
AOL
Salon
Mashed
Homes & Gardens
Ideal Home
Livingetc
The English Home
FoodNavigator
Speciality Food
SheerLuxe
Saga
Mumsnet
The coverage crossed several editorial categories, including food, homes, lifestyle, health, consumer advice and hospitality.
Building a recognisable area of authority
The campaign demonstrates why expert PR does not necessarily require a constant stream of major business announcements.
Dean already had the important ingredient: genuine professional knowledge.
Our role was to identify where that knowledge intersected with what journalists were writing about and turn it into concise, timely and usable commentary.
One week that might mean Christmas dinner.
Another might mean air fryers.
Another might be food poisoning, kitchen utensils, fridge organisation or the best way to cook bacon.
Individually, those opportunities may appear unrelated. Collectively, they build a substantial body of independent media evidence around Dean's culinary expertise.
Sustaining a campaign for two years
A long-running expert campaign needs variety.
Repeatedly approaching journalists with the same biography and the same handful of comments would quickly become limiting.
Instead, the strategy continually found new applications for Dean's expertise, responding to changes in seasons, consumer behaviour, food trends and journalist demand.
That allowed Harper Fine Dining to participate in media conversations across the year rather than relying on occasional company news.
It also meant the campaign could reach substantially different audiences through food publications, national newspapers, homes titles and consumer media.
What the client said
“Very happy with the service provided. Would recommend!”
Michelle Dean
The outcome
Over the two-year campaign, Harper Fine Dining developed a substantial earned-media footprint through chef-led expert PR.
The supplied campaign records show more than 80 published articles and syndicated pieces, with Dean's commentary appearing across major national publications, consumer titles and specialist food and homes media.
Rather than depending on promotional stories about the business, the campaign made Dean's genuine culinary expertise the media asset.
That gave Fair PR a broad and renewable source of credible ideas and allowed Harper Fine Dining to remain relevant to journalists across cooking, food, kitchens, hospitality and consumer lifestyle subjects.
You can view Harper Fine Dining's published articles in our Media Coverage database, alongside hundreds of other articles secured for our clients across a wide range of industries, sectors and areas of expertise.
The results
| Result | Details |
|---|---|
| Campaign | Harper Fine Dining |
| Campaign length | 2 years |
| Expert | Dean Harper, qualified chef and founder |
| PR approach | Expert commentary, reactive media opportunities, seasonal food PR and culinary thought leadership |
| Published media | More than 80 published articles and syndicated pieces recorded across the supplied campaign data |
| Selected publications | The Telegraph, The Observer, The Independent, MailOnline, The Sun, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, TIME, U.S. News & World Report, Yahoo, Homes & Gardens and Ideal Home |
| Campaign focus | Culinary expertise, food trends, cooking advice, food safety, kitchen equipment and seasonal consumer commentary |
Could your professional expertise become a media opportunity?
Some of the strongest expert PR campaigns begin with knowledge that a founder or specialist already uses every day.
The opportunity lies in identifying which parts of that expertise journalists need, finding timely angles and consistently making the expert useful to the media.
Fair Public Relations helps founders and experts turn genuine professional knowledge into credible earned media opportunities.
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