When Mon Lapin first opened in Montréal’s Little Italy – initially as a wine bar – the team wasn’t thinking about cookbooks or accolades. “We never opened with a grand plan or a roadmap to international recognition,” they say. “We wanted to build a place where we would want to spend our own evenings: good food, great wine, a room full of energy, and a sense of belonging.” That lack of pretension has always been part of the restaurant’s appeal, and it carries through into The Mon Lapin Cookbook, a new volume that looks back on the last seven years with a tone that is reflective rather than celebratory.
The book begins with a series of introductory pieces, followed by a chapter dedicated to dishes that have become part of Mon Lapin’s identity, then others exploring the team’s approach to seasonal seafood and vegetables, pasta, meat, desserts and staples.
Selecting the recipes was apparently quite a task. “After seven years of changing menus every day, there was an enormous amount of material to choose from,” the team explains. Some dishes were included because they had become signatures, others because they were tied to a specific producer, moment or memory. The book also includes recipes adapted specifically for cooking at home. These versions are not simplified so much as scaled down, designed to work in a domestic kitchen without losing the spirit of the originals. For readers, this means the book is not only a window into Mon Lapin’s creative process, but also a practical resource.
For an excellent example, look no further than the exclusive recipe for radishes and chicken liver parfait that Fine Dining Lovers is publishing alongside this preview. It’s a dish that reflects Mon Lapin’s approach to cooking: simple ingredients, treated with care.
