The Celine Dion of Recipes?

Starting a week Monday, English Canada will find a version of the very popular food lifestyle magazine Ricardo on their newsstands. (The French version is shown here.) According to a story in the Montreal Gazette, Ricardo Larrivee is very optimistic about wedging himself into the crowded gourmet food market and sees himself as becoming "the Celine Dion of recipes"

A single-name celebrity in Quebec like Emeril in the U.S and Nigella in Britain, Larrivee, 39, is expanding his culinary empire beyond La Belle Province and is poised to tackle English Canada with the release this past spring of his latest cookbook, Weekend Cooking (Editions La Presse, 2005), the translated version of his book Ma cuisine week-end, which sold an impressive 50,000 copies in Quebec.

Next up was the launch this month of the Food TV program Ricardo and Friends, followed by the English version of his magazine Ricardo, which is set to hit magazines stands from coast to coast Nov. 6.

While all this is going on, Larrivee still manages to film his weekday-morning, Radio-Canada show, called - you guessed it - Ricardo, which has been Rad-Can's top-rated daytime program for the past three years.