Joseph Gannascoli gave a blunt answer when asked if people assume he's exactly like his character on The Sopranos.

"Uh, I hope not," Gannascoli said with a chuckle. "Because he's gay."

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

"There has been a lot of press lately, and that's pretty cool," he added. "I don't know if the character I play is what I'm noticed for, but I want to be recognized as someone who can act."

Gannascoli plays Vito Spatafore -- you know, the guy who lost all the weight -- on The Sopranos, which kicked off its sixth and final season last weekend.

Vito has been driving his mobster buddies crazy with his dieting lectures and his ravenous ambition. But as far as Gannascoli is concerned, he's just happy to have emerged as one of the everyday characters on the critically acclaimed show.

"The Sopranos has changed my life, for sure," he said. "It got me married, it got me a house and it gave me a chance to do some acting.

"They've given me a lot to do this year, so I'm happy with that. I've had a ton of work this year." He also lost a ton of weight, but a love of food still is in his blood. Gannascoli, 46, was a chef for 25 years before getting into acting full-time, and recently he came out with a cookbook/novel (titled A Meal To Die For) and a pasta sauce (see joesoup.com).

"I'm also coming out with olive oil and spices, and red and white wines," Gannascoli said. "And the book is autobiographical, about a chef who gambles and becomes a food fence, sort of like a jewelry fence, and I've been known to do that myself. People are looking at making it into a movie."

So where did he find the time to do all this extra stuff?

"Well, we were off from The Sopranos for 21 months," he pointed out.

The layoff also gave Gannascoli, who grew up in Brooklyn and lives in Long Island, a chance to come up with an idea for another TV show, one that combines his love of food and his love of sports.

"You're up in Toronto, right?" he asked. "I used to play a lot of hockey and I'm a big hockey fan. Paul Henderson, Rick Kehoe, Borje Salming, Wendel Clark, Darryl Sittler. Those were my teams. Of course, I'm a Rangers fan first and foremost, but I'm a huge hockey fan.

"I'd love to do a sports cooking show. Say, I had a Wendel Clark or a Darryl Sittler on the program. We'd show some clips of him, and I'd ask, 'What did you grow up eating? Did you have any favourite recipes or dishes? Did your grandmother used to make this or that?' And then we'd go over to the kitchen and try to make it."

Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. Gannascoli should pitch that to someone. "Oh, I'm going to, definitely," he said.

Gannascoli said taping for The Sopranos ended just last week. While he obviously hopes to continue acting in the future, he understands that finding material as good as The Sopranos will be an uphill battle.

Nonetheless, Gannascoli is glad The Sopranos is not going to run past its expiry date, to borrow an expression from the world of food.

"This is going to be quite a season for The Sopranos," he said. "But when it's done, I think we will have told all the stories we have to tell."