Recently, a journalist friend and I were chatting about this blog, and my broader mission to help chefs spend less on, but get more from, their PR. She pointed out that most of my tips boil down to one line: Stop passing up golden opportunities.

Chefs love to be so busy that they can’t possibly get the media what they actually need. They love to think that the media should just work within the chef’s schedule and somehow write the story without crucial information. And they generally have these long tales of woes where they list out all the reasons why they can’t deliver something in a timely manner.

Of course, everyone in every industry except maybe “Toll Taking” has this problem. And the solution, which ultimately leads to success, is to get over it and get ’er done.

That said, I did hear of a diamond of a chef in the rough — one of my clients who definitely gets it, and has two successful restaurants to prove it.

While interviewing him about an upcoming event series at one of his restaurants, she asked him if he had a menu prepared she could use in her article. He admitted he didn’t know what he was going to serve yet. But rather than pass up a golden opportunity to tempt her readers with the delicious details, he told her he’d put together the menu that night and send it to her in time for her deadline. And he did!

So if you are wondering what sent that cold snap into Chicago over the weekend, it was clearly hell freezing over.