Celebrating 25 Years!

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INTRODUCING THE LISA EKUS GROUP

Why change our company name? It worked just fine for 25 years.

As we all know too well, the only thing constant in life is change, and change with the times we must. The new company name removes "public relations" from the title because over these last 25 years, we have become much more than a PR agency. We now offer multiple creative and communications services, including public relations, media training, literary agenting, and culinary spokesperson/partnerships.

We think our new logo is fun, hip, and timely, symbolic of our connection with food, but also a metaphor for stirring things up, scooping up opportunities, and having a creative and business edge over the competition. And then there's the green. We just love this color, not just because of the enduring, classic qualities of green, but because it also represents what we care about — wholesome food, sustainability, and our environment.

Why "group?" you might wonder. In addition to offering a group of services, Lisa recognizes that while she is the executive chef, her chefs de cuisine and sous chefs make it all come together. This is a perfect case where too many cooks don't spoil the broth. Our collective energy and spirit from clients, authors, staff, and all of our culinary colleagues and community supporters make this business akin to a warm, inviting kitchen that satiates and pleases every appetite.

In a spoonful:
Lisa Ekus-Saffer + extensive services + exceptional staff + extraordinary clients =
THE LISA EKUS GROUP.

Come back to our website often as we evolve our content, embrace the changing times, and
continually strive to give our clients the best service.

COOKING UP A LIFE THAT COUNTS

Newly named, The Lisa Ekus Group celebrates the company's 25th anniversary by looking back at its creative history. The company also looks ahead to new opportunities that underscore the corporate mission of promoting a world of culinary talent.

Behind every company is a life. Behind that life is a person. And wrapped up in all of it are the common ingredients of vision blended with knowledge, persistence, luck, and a sprinkling of faith.

Lisa Ekus-Saffer is a quintessential entrepreneur who knows a thing or two about ingredients. Hailed as the "best in the business," Lisa is someone who not just created a business, but invented a category. In 1982, she started the first public relations agency devoted to publicizing cookbooks, chefs, and food products. As a March 25, 1998 article in the Springfield, Massachusetts Union-News stated: "It was like discovering she was on a surfboard on the biggest wave of the '80s, and she's ridden its towering crest ever since."

It all started with Lisa's internship at the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency in New York (while a student at Barnard College), followed by several publicity positions at leading publishers, including Random House and Crown Publishers. But really, it started before then, as she cooked with her mother, creating meals and family memories around food (experience she later put to use when preparing three meals a day for more than 120 people in a kibbutz in Israel).

Then came the cookbooks. And more cookbooks. By the time Lisa moved with her family to Hatfield, Massachusetts, she had amassed towering boxes of books, enough to later create a two-floor library that now boasts approximately 10,000 books, about 6,000 of which are — you guessed it — cookbooks.

The library is the centerpiece of her 230-year-old renovated farmhouse, to which is attached a barn-turned-office, renovated in 1992, where the company continues to carry on its core business areas of public relations, media training, spokesperson partnerships, and literary agenting. Food has remained the primary business focus, with the company also expanding to include complimentary areas such as health, nutrition, well-being, and women's issues.

As the publishing industry changed its publicity model in the 1990s — due to a tough economy, the advent of the Internet, falling or non-existent marketing dollars, and few, if no, publicity efforts — The Lisa Ekus Public Relations Company changed, too. Paper-laden press kits evolved into e-releases, book tours morphed into blogs, websites, and special events, and the company's major printed catalog shifted online.

In 2000, Lisa Ekus Public Relations began literary agenting services and has since negotiated more than 150 book deals with such publishers as Artisan, Chronicle, HarperCollins, Penguin, Robert Rose, Simon & Schuster, Taunton, Ten Speed Press, Wiley, and numerous others.

New prospects on the horizon include expanded media training services, increased culinary partnerships and spokesperson opportunities, new public relations campaigns, publishing consulting, and an ever-expanding literary agenting practice.

In her 25 years in the culinary industry, Lisa has cooked dinner for Julia Child, media trained Emeril Lagasse, cemented book deals for more than 80 authors, created culinary partnerships for leading manufacturers the likes of Lipton, Del Monte, Keebler, General Mills, Kraft, and Williams-Sonoma, and represented such restaurants as Al Forno, Susanno Foo, Fonda San Miguel, and others around the country.

But that's not all. She has raised two beautiful daughters; wined, dined, traveled, and shared a life with her husband and stepson; employed numerous people; and contributed countless hours to charities such as The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, all the while keeping a business not just functioning, but actually evolving, thriving, and succeeding.

That's the short history of Lisa Ekus Public Relations Company, LLC, now The Lisa Ekus Group, whose name change reflects the company's transition to new times, new goals, new challenges, and new rewards.

And that's Lisa Ekus-Saffer for you. She has prepped culinary professionals for stardom and helped turned unknown writers into prominent cookbook authors. Over the years, she has written restaurant reviews, attended food events and conferences around the world, coordinated book tours and publicity tie-ins, matched food experts with corporations, and conducted numerous seminars and presentations. She has hosted more events than possible to number in her home, including fundraisers, chef introductions to media, client gatherings, staff soirees, and this past year, an author retreat. She has been regularly interviewed by the media, was given awards by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and the American Marketing Association, and has been a board member of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs, IACP, and The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, as well as being a top fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Whether helping established chefs or rising stars make their mark on the culinary landscape, the common denominator in Lisa's career has been giving people the tools they need to follow their passion. How does she do it? She follows her passion and maintains a personal mission to educate, inspire, encourage, guide, and promote the joys of cooking, writing, and healthful eating and living.

Twenty-five years in business alone is a statement that small ideas and big dreams can lead to even bigger accomplishments. Small companies can spring up in a barn that once rested on a potato field and somehow impact a world of culinary talent. Take several ingredients, put them in a pot, and magically create something. And always lead by example.

As The Lisa Ekus Group celebrates its 25th anniversary, the company seeks to continue setting an example, primarily to share not only your food, but your good fortune with others. Lisa will recognize and donate to 25 charities this year, showing that sustaining a company is just as much about cooking up a life that counts as it is about running a business.

• To read about the 25 charities we will recognize for our 25th anniversary, click here.
• To learn more about Lisa Ekus Public Relations clients, click here.
• For Literary Agenting clients and projects, click here.
• For Media Training clients, click here.
• For a short bio of Lisa Ekus-Saffer and the current staff, click here.