Anthony Bourdain, the celebrity chef, author and reality TV star, will acquire books for Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, the publisher said on Monday. Mr. Bourdain has been given a line of books that is expected to release three to five titles each year, which Ecco said in a statement would “reflect his remarkably eclectic tastes.” Daniel Halpern, the president and publisher of Ecco, said that Mr. Bourdain has been an informal adviser to him for about 10 years, a period during which Mr. Bourdain’s own books were published by Ecco. “His intuition has been unerring – suggesting such authors as Ferran Adria and Fergus Henderson,” Mr. Halpern said in an e-mail. “Now he’s becoming one of us, sort of.”

The deal is similar to Chelsea Handler’s imprint at Grand Central Publishing, which was announced last year. While most publishing imprints are sparingly bestowed on influential editors who have worked in the industry for decades, handing an imprint to a celebrity author is something different: an opportunity for publishers to express their loyalty to their own authors, receive their editorial input and benefit, they hope, from the publicity and attention the celebrity authors can bring to the books they are acquiring.