In Wednesday’s night’s 9pm ET/8pm PT episode of Food Network’s Canadian original reality competition series Recipe to Riches season two, Rick Matharu from Brampton, ON, was declared the winner of the Entrées category.

As the winner of his category, Rick will receive $25,000 and his Butter Chicken Lasagna will be a new President’s Choice® brand product – Canada’s number one brand* – available in select Loblaw Companies Limited banner stores across the country starting this weekend.  For a list of where President’s Choice® products are sold across Canada, please click here.

Rick’s competition in the Entrées category was Stephanie Kepman (Ottawa, ON) with her General Tso Tofu and Mary Rocto (Etobicoke, ON) with her Jerk Chicken Buns.  The three finalists competed in a series of challenges that evaluated their recipes’ taste, quality, commercial viability and the entrepreneurial prowess of a potential product launch.

Hosted by former The Bachelor star Jesse Palmer, the competition is judged by a panel of experts including Laura Calder, host of French Food at Home; Tony Chapman, Founder and CEO of leading advertising agency Capital C; and Dana McCauley, Culinary Director at Janes Family Foods. Making a special appearance as a weekly guest judge is Galen Weston, Executive Chairman of Loblaw Companies Limited.  The winners of each category will receive a $25,000 cash prize and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for their recipe to be developed into a President’s Choice® brand product available in select Loblaw banner stores across the country. Each week, Canadians will have the chance to sample category winners’ products in-store. After all category winners have been determined, it’s up to Canadian viewers to vote for the best of the best.  Food Network will air a marathon recapping all seven episodes on December 5^th, and voting will open on recipetoriches.ca at 12:01 p.m. ET on December 5 and close at 4:59 p.m. ET on December 7.  During the exciting December 12^th finale, viewers will witness who will take home the $250,000 grand prize – the largest cash prize in Canadian reality television history.

In next week’s episode of Recipe to Riches, Robert Armatta (Montreal, QC), Lucie Dion (Mont-Joli, QC) and Don Harquail (Burnaby, BC) compete to find out whose Candies and Chocolates will be available in stores across Canada next weekend.  Click here to see a preview for next week’s episode.

For images and biographies of the 21 finalists please visit recipetoriches.ca.  To keep tabs on what Canadians are saying about Recipe to Riches, check out the Recipe to Riches page on Facebook at facebook.com/recipetoriches or follow @RecipetoRiches on Twitter.  To learn more about the product development process involved in turning these much-loved recipes into President’s Choice® products, visit http://www.facebook.com/presidentschoice.

Viewers can continue watching Recipe to Riches on Food Network Canada Wednesdays at 9pm ET/8pm PT with encore presentations Saturdays at 7pm ET/PT on Global TV.