The Mon Lapin Cookbook: De Toute Beauté: From Montreal, With Love

An intimate celebration of a small Montreal dining room that has become one of the most sought-after places to eat and drink in North America

Before evolving into an innovative, award-winning restaurant that ranks among the world’s best, Mon Lapin began life as a neighbourhood spot founded by five friends with a shared respect for good food, natural wine, and the art of hospitality. T his cookbook is, in their words, ‘ a personal invitation into the heart-shaped centre of our Montreal restaurant’.

The Mon Lapin Cookbook distils the restaurant’s playful spirit and unpretentious culinary brilliance into a richly illustrated collection of recipes and writing. Structured into seven chapters – What is a Wine Bar Anyway? ; 

An intimate celebration of a small Montreal dining room that has become one of the most sought-after places to eat and drink in North America

Before evolving into an innovative, award-winning restaurant that ranks among the world’s best, Mon Lapin began life as a neighbourhood spot founded by five friends with a shared respect for good food, natural wine, and the art of hospitality. This cookbook is, in their words, ‘ a personal invitation into the heart-shaped centre of our Montreal restaurant’.

The Mon Lapin Cookbook distils the restaurant’s playful spirit and unpretentious culinary brilliance into a richly illustrated collection of recipes and writing. Structured into seven chapters – What is a Wine Bar Anyway?; Steamy Windows in February; The Fifth Season (when seafood means business); Every Vegetable is a Summer Vegetable in Quebec; Primi – A Love Affair; Cooking with Small Animals; and Staples – the book features more than 100 beloved dishes, including Kitchen-Ade (their kitchen-team cure-all), Tagliatelle with Newfoundland Squid Ragù, Sourdough Chicken, Oven-Baked Rabbit alla Marco, Buckwheat Celebration Cake, and Mille-Fleurs de Courgette. Each chapter is paired with a wine essay – appropriate for a restaurant where food and wine are inextricably linked.

Thoughtfully designed and filled with vibrant photography, The Mon Lapin Cookbook is an essential companion, equally at home in the kitchen or on the bedside table: urbane yet affectionate, serious about its craft yet always convivial, with a tongue-in-cheek approach to culinary tradition – a love letter to eating and drinking in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

From the foreword:

‘[The Mon Lapin Cookbook is] much more than a collection of recipes but rather an unabridged and joyful labor of love … Vanya, Marco, and Jess – who, along with their team, have distilled their life experiences into the perfect restaurant and now into this wonderful book… their Croque-Pétoncle is a culinary mashup – your everyman Croque Monsieur meets a refined, foundational French scallop mousse. It’s deceptively simple, yet wholly original. This hot-rodding of familiar, time-honored recipes is quintessential Mon Lapin – and the way they make it look so effortless is both maddening and inspirational … As for wine, Vanya is in a league all her own, always pouring with enlightened conviction, not dogma … Vanya, Marco, Jess, and the Mon Lapin family have created a touchstone restaurant that both delights and restores. How lucky are we to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the pages that follow?’ – Riad Nasr, chef-owner/co-executive chef of Frenchette, Le Veau d’Or & Le Rock

Praise for The Mon Lapin Cookbook:

‘Marco, Vanya, and Jess have created something that represents themselves so purely through cooking and wine it’s beautiful. No one cooks like them and no one takes care of people like them. We are lucky to live in a time that their restaurants exist. The Mon Lapin Cookbook will brighten the world, and we need this more now than ever. Mon Lapin forever.’ – Matty Matheson, chef, author & actor

‘The singular vision that Montreal’s Mon Lapin expresses with every meal it serves defies convention. After years of eating Marco and Jess's intoxicating food, drinking Vanya's lusty, hand-chosen wines, and immediately longing for more on departure, I've given up trying to label it at all. To do so misses the point. The point is to bask in it, to let go of preconception, and let their joy, impeccable taste, and genuine skill at pleasing people do its thing. Their debut cookbook shares the restaurant's unique ethos – along with its many coveted recipes – with the world, allowing us all to linger endlessly at their enchanted table.’ – Gail Simmons, TV host & author of Guesting

‘The Mon Lapin Cookbook is an invitation into Mon Lapin’s singular world and the city that shaped it. The ingenious Croque-Pétoncle, exuberantly seasonal cooking, intentional wine list, and devotion to Quebec’s producers all speak to a restaurant grounded in place and fueled by generosity. This utterly transportive book will make you want to cook, pour something delicious, and get yourself to Montreal immediately.’ – Katie Parla, author of Rome: A Culinary History, Cookbook, and Field Guide to the Flavors that Built a City

‘The Mon Lapin Cookbook captures the spirit of a restaurant that is playfully shaping the future of food and wine in North America. From Vanya’s unpretentious, personal approach to wine and dishes like the Smoked Eel Carbonara and the Croque-Pétoncle, I enjoyed every page of Ingenuity, humor, and personality. This cookbook is all heart – a spontaneous celebration fit for anyone who loves to connect over beautiful products in unpretentious places.’ – John Shields, chef of Smyth & The Loyalist