C. Dean Metropoulos has been busy of late. The private equity investor-consultant is a bidder, along with Apollo Management LP, TPG Capital and Bain Capital LLC, for food products company Sara Lee Corp. in a deal that could top $15 billion. He was also a rumored bidder, along with Apollo, for Del Monte Foods Co., which sold itself to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Vestar Capital Partners and Centerview Partners, for $5.3 billion in November. And in March, Metropoulos bought Milwaukee-based beermaker Pabst ­Brewing Co. for $250 million.

The activity follows a relatively fallow time for Metropoulos, 64, whose last deal before Pabst Brewing was the sale of Pinnacle Foods Group Inc. to the Blackstone Group LP for $2.2 billion in 2007. That deal helped him and his co-investors, J.P. Morgan Partners LLC (CCMP Capital Advisors LLC managed its investment in Pinnacle Foods) and J.W. Childs Associates LP, collect about 2.5 times their original investment.

A Greek immigrant who moved to the United States when he was 9 years old, Metropoulos began his career working for General Telephone & Electronics Corp., which eventually turned into Verizon Communications Inc. His first food deal was for Stella Foods, a company he ran between 1983 and 1993. He has been buying and selling food companies ever since, often partnering with private equity shops.

Metropoulos started working with Hicks Muse Tate & Furst, now HM Capital Partners LLC, in 1994 when the private equity firm brought him in to rescue Morningstar Foods Inc. He helped clean up the company, and two years later, sold it for $1 billion to Suiza Foods Corp., now known as Dean Foods Co. Other deals on which Metropoulos and Hicks Muse collaborated include the spinout of Premier Foods plc from Hillsdown Holding plc and the acquisition of Vlasic Foods International Inc. out of bankruptcy in 2001, which became Pinnacle Foods Corp.

The partnership ended in August 2003, when Hicks Muse sold its stake in Pinnacle to J.P. Morgan Partners. Now it's Apollo's turn to team up with Metropoulos. A source says that the Apollo partnership is in its early stages, with the Del Monte and Sara Lee bids the first in what may be a series of deals in the food sector.

Food would be a new area for Apollo. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, of the 16 acquisitions Apollo made in 2007 and 2008, none involved food companies. With Metropoulos on the scene, that could soon change.