What Ricardo Media does

Ricardo Media Inc. is a privately held, founder-owned Quebec media and commerce company headquartered in Saint-Lambert, operating an integrated culinary ecosystem under the RICARDO brand. Its core platform is the French-language recipe website ricardocuisine.com, which organizes a proprietary recipe database by ingredient, dish, and theme and is supported by video content, weekly email newsletters, SMS offers, and a long-running television show on Radio-Canada. Around this audience it layers a recurring monthly premium subscription (Mon RICARDO+) that adds meal planning, personalized recipe management, and grocery-list tools, plus a print and digital magazine published eight times per year with auto-renewal and iOS app distribution.

The company monetizes through five reinforcing revenue streams: magazine subscriptions (annual), Mon RICARDO+ premium subscriptions (monthly), branded e-commerce sales of 579 RICARDO products across small appliances, kitchen tools, cookware, tableware, and gourmet foods, a physical Café RICARDO restaurant in Saint-Lambert with online ordering, and sponsored content and advertising from CPG brands such as IGA, Boursin, Yves Rocher, and VH sauces. Customers are French-speaking Canadian home cooks and food enthusiasts, served through an omnichannel mix of web, email, SMS, mobile app, print, and physical retail. The business was founded by chef and television personality Ricardo, has 51-100 employees, and counts Fonds de solidarité FTQ as an institutional investor from a 2015 round.

Name

Ricardo Media

Legal name

Ricardo Media Inc.

Website

https://ricardocuisine.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Ricardo Media is a Quebec-based, founder-owned media and commerce company that operates the RICARDO culinary ecosystem — a recipe website, premium subscription, magazine, branded e-commerce store, and restaurant — serving French-speaking Canadian home cooks.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Culinary Media & Lifestyle Publishing

NAICS

Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Business, Finance & Industry Trade Magazines (MPAJAEAM)

Keywords

• Culinary media publishing
• Recipe content platform
• Lifestyle magazine subscription
• Kitchen product retail
• Premium cooking subscription

Headquarters

HQ city

Saint-lambert

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Magazine Subscriptions: Print and digital magazine subscriptions published 8 times per year, with auto-renewal and various subscription tiers
2. E-commerce Boutique Sales: Direct sales of RICARDO-branded kitchen appliances, utensils, cookware, gourmet foods, and cookbooks through online boutique with free shipping over $99
3. Café RICARDO Restaurant: Physical restaurant operation at 310 A rue d'Arran, Saint-Lambert with online ordering and pickup
4. Mon RICARDO+ Premium Subscription: Monthly paid subscription service with enhanced cooking planning and organizational tools, available in addition to magazine subscription with 10% discount for magazine subscribers
5. Advertising Revenue: Sponsored content and advertising placements from brands including IGA, Boursin, Yves Rocher, VH sauces, and others through content marketing formats on the recipe platform

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Ricardo Media is a Quebec-based culinary media company that publishes Magazine RICARDO (8 times per year in print and digital), operates the ricardocuisine.com recipe website with thousands of tested recipes, and sells RICARDO-branded kitchen products through the Boutique RICARDO e-commerce store. The company also operates Café RICARDO restaurant in Saint-Lambert, broadcasts a television show on Radio-Canada, and offers the Mon RICARDO+ premium subscription service with menu planning and grocery list tools.

Product overview

Ricardo Media operates a multi-platform culinary media and commerce business centered around chef Ricardo and the RICARDO brand. The core offering consists of the RICARDO Cuisine recipe website (ricardocuisine.com) providing free recipes and editorial content, supported by subscription services including the Mon RICARDO+ premium tier with menu planning and grocery list tools, and the RICARDO Magazine published 8 times annually in print and digital formats. The company extends its brand into physical retail through Café RICARDO restaurants and the Boutique RICARDO e-commerce store (boutique.ricardocuisine.com) selling 579 RICARDO-branded products including small appliances (air fryers, pizza ovens, rice cookers, sous-vide cookers, ice cream makers, slush machines), kitchen tools (wooden spoons, measuring cups, spatulas, knife sets), cookware (pots, pans, baking sheets, pizza stones), tableware, and gourmet food products (chocolates, sauces, spices, coffees). Additional channels include an iOS Magazine App with subscription auto-renewal and a television cooking show on Radio-Canada.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• RICARDO: Kitchen appliances, utensils, cookware, and accessories sold through the Boutique RICARDO online store

Products and services

• RICARDO Cuisine (ricardocuisine.com) French-language recipe website offering recipes, meal planning tools, cooking videos, and editorial articles organized by ingredient, dish type, and theme, for Quebec and French-speaking Canadian home cooks.
• Mon RICARDO+ Premium Subscription Monthly paid subscription service providing personalized recipe management, weekly menu planning, and custom grocery list generation for home cooks seeking organized meal planning.
• Magazine RICARDO Food and lifestyle magazine published 8 times per year in print and digital formats, featuring seasonal recipes, cooking techniques, and culinary travel content, with annual subscription tiers including auto-renewal.
• Boutique RICARDO E-commerce Store Online store selling 579 RICARDO-branded products including small appliances (air fryers, pizza ovens, rice cookers, sous-vide cookers, ice cream makers), kitchen tools, cookware, tableware, and gourmet food products, with free shipping on orders over $99 in Canada.
• Café RICARDO Restaurant Restaurant located at 310 A rue d'Arran in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, offering dine-in service and online ordering for in-store pickup of prepared perishable food items.
• Magazine RICARDO iOS App iOS mobile application for accessing the digital Magazine RICARDO, featuring subscription-based auto-renewal with in-app purchase capabilities.
• RICARDO Television Show Television cooking show broadcast on Radio-Canada featuring chef Ricardo, extending brand reach to mass audiences across Quebec and French-speaking Canada.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Half Baked Harvest: Digital-first creator-led food brand with cookbooks, recipe platform, and pantry-product line. Comparable commerce + content model, though without the magazine anchor.

Direct peers

• Allrecipes: Dotdash Meredith's community-driven recipe platform with native commerce and advertising integrations. Closest direct competitor to the ricardocuisine.com recipe + native-commerce funnel.
• Saveur: Andrews McMeel-owned premium consumer food magazine with digital recipe vertical. Comparable target audience (passionate home cooks) and magazine-anchored business model.
• Taste of Home: U.S. consumer food magazine and recipe platform with associated branded cookbooks and products. Closely comparable to Ricardo Media's integrated consumer-food media + commerce model.
• Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond): Celebrity-chef-led consumer food brand extending into cookbook, kitchenware, and grocery categories. Highly comparable founder/brand-driven model to Ricardo Media.
• Chatelaine: St-Joseph Media's flagship Canadian food and lifestyle magazine with a strong recipe vertical; competes for the same Canadian home-cook subscription and advertising dollars.
• Canadian Living: Canadian consumer lifestyle and food magazine with digital recipe content, directly comparable to RICARDO Magazine and ricardocuisine.com in the Canadian market.

Broad incumbents

• Bon Appétit / Epicurious: Condé Nast-owned consumer food media brand combining magazine heritage with recipe site and video. Comparable integrated food-media play at larger scale.
• Food Network Kitchen: Discovery's television-first culinary brand with companion digital recipe and cooking-instruction products. Analogous to Ricardo's Radio-Canada TV + recipe site integration.

Regional players

• Coup de Pouce: Quebec francophone consumer lifestyle magazine with food content. Direct competitor for magazine advertising and home-cook mindshare in the same Quebec audience Ricardo serves.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeici.radio-canada.ca/tele/ricardo/site
• Xx.com/ricardocuisine
• Facebookfacebook.com/lacuisinedericardo
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ricardo-media

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ricardo Media