Mon Lapin releases cookbook chronicling Montreal restaurant's rise

MONTREAL — The Montreal restaurant Mon Lapin has released its first cookbook, a 300-page collection of 100 recipes, photographs and stories chronicling its rise.

The book, titled The Mon Lapin Cookbook, captures the first eight years of the restaurant, which began as a 35-seat natural wine bar called Vin Mon Lapin on the corner of Rue St-Zotique and Avenue Casgrain in Little Italy in March 2018.

"The mood was jovial," the book notes. "The menu was as capricious as the weather dictated, with offerings that belied their complexity."

READ MORE: Vancouver's AnnaLena earns city's first two-Michelin-star rating

READ MORE: Collingwood's LORE Restaurant earns Michelin recommendation months after opening

Led by sommelier Vanya Filipovic and co-chefs Jessica Noël and Marc-Olivier Frappier, the restaurant was part of the Joe Beef family but presented a different philosophy, with small, seasonal plates meant for sharing.

"Their interpretation of salt and vinegar nestled buckwheat-dredged oysters amongst fermented potatoes, both golden-crisped, in a swath of savoury custard," the book notes.

An opening night salad was described as "a dappled mound of radicchio beneath shavings of house cured foie gras, anointed by a pumpkin seed praline vinaigrette woodsy with smoked vinegar."

The restaurant dropped "Vin" from its name, took over sole proprietorship in 2019 along with co-sommelier Alex Landry and front-of-house manager Marc-Antoine Gélinas, and expanded physically in 2020, doubling its size.

It ranked first on Canada's 100 Best Restaurants list for 2023 and 2024, placed second on North America's 50 Best Restaurants list for 2025, and Filipovic was named top sommelier nationally and internationally.

The cookbook includes recipes for Mon Lapin classics, such as the Croque-Pétoncle sandwich with scallop farce and the buckwheat cake. It also features one-night-only dishes and some not yet served in the dining room.

Photographs are by Dominique Lafond and illustrations by Raphael Labrie Dion. The book is being released in French and English concurrently, with neither version being a translation.

Essays and asides cover topics like wine, brown butter and snow crab. A chapter titled "What is a wine bar, anyway?" was considered as the book's title.

The book shares stories from the restaurant's history, such as favourite corn sellers at Marché Jean Talon and trips to Abitibi-Témiscamingue for whitefish caviar.

It includes recipes for deboned, stuffed chicken wings dubbed "croq'ailes," which were part of a COVID-era takeout barbecue pivot and now star at their second restaurant, Rotisserie La Lune.

At its heart, the book is described as an invitation into the restaurant's ethos of hospitality rooted in joy and generosity, not rules. "Hospitality and cooking are rooted in joy and generosity, not rules," the book states.

One dessert recipe, for a rice pie, came from a Belgian cook in the restaurant's early years, Max Hoffman, who suggested it when the team was stumped for new ideas. "Max Hoffman, a Belgian cook in Mon Lapin’s early years, piped up and said, with no elaboration, 'rice pie,'" the book recounts.

The restaurant now finishes the pie with maple syrup from cook Xavier Desjardins's family sugar shack.

With files from The Globe and Mail