Posters depicting 'The ugly one', accompanied by the note: 'I saw this and thought of you,' dropped on the doormats of top chefs this week, marking the start of Jack Buck Growers' marketing strategy to promote celeriac.

The company hopes to transform the product from marginal vegetable to sought-after delicacy by getting influential culinary experts to endorse it. And the poster gimmick was dreamed up to be a light-hearted way to spark interest.

Jack Buck's long-term campaign will also include mail drops to consumers, in-store promotions and recipe ideas posted on the company's website – all geared towards raising celeriac's profile and culinary uses.

'It's an educational process,' explained Jack Buck marketing assistant Ross Allenby. 'We opted for a subtle start to the campaign in sending out the posters. We want initially to generate interest in celeriac among opinion leaders within the marketplace, such as head chefs, editors of food magazines and producers of TV and radio food programmes.

'They are the individuals who can change people's minds about celeriac by including it in their recipes, articles or programmes. At the moment, consumers just don't know what to do with the product.' Allenby added that the company will be following up this week's mail drop with phone calls to original poster recipients, succeeded by distribution of recipe ideas.

'We don't want to bombard people with too much at first,' he said.

'This marketing strategy is planned to continue over the next three years, with concerted pushes every three months.'

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