A Montreal Cook: Recipes and Reflections from My Kitchen by Lesley Chesterman
”There is no way you can grow up in Montreal and not care about food.”
Montrealer Lesley Chesterman is the award-winning author of Make Every Dish Delicious, and her latest book, A Montreal Cook: Recipes and Reflections from My Kitchen, is destined to be another award-winner.
Lesley Chesterman’s Make Every Dish Delicious and Un Week-End Chez Lesley were awarded the 2023 Gold Medals in Taste, Canada’s General Cookbook division, in the English and French categories.
The renowned pastry chef was a food columnist and restaurant critic for the Montreal Gazette from 1999 to 2019. Her work has appeared in several prestigious publications, including Gourmet magazine, The Art of Eating, and Eater.
A Montreal Cook takes readers on an inspiring culinary travel journey through Chesterman’s beloved city, revealing the best of Montreal through more than 90 recipes and engaging stories.
Divided into six Parts, recipes take us from Breakfast and Big Brunches to Desserts. A few highlights include To Market, Winter and Après-ski, Apéro! Entertaining Montreal Style Fancier Fare and Tea àla Montrealaise. And yes, you will even find a recipe for Poutine!
photo by Maude Chauvin.
As Chesterman says in the Introduction: ”There is no way you can grow up in Montreal and not care about food.” She continues, “Since 1912, when the Ritz-Carlton Hotel opened the first luxury restaurant in the country, locals and visitors alike have looked on this city as the gourmet capital of Canada….but a great food city is not just about its chefs and restaurants. It’s also about the markets, the boulangeries, pâtisseries, the butchers, the charcutiers and the chocolatiers, as well as the farmers, fishermen, and producers.”
Montreal boasts several public food markets (the largest are Maisonneuve Market, Atwater Market, and Jean-Talon Market), and we take a journey ‘To Market!’ with recipes for breakfast, including Apple Oatmeal Spice Muffins, The Best Bran Muffins, Jean’s French Toast, Quick Raspberry Jam, and more. Skip ahead to Everyday Dinners and discover mouthwatering recipes for Spaghetti with Veal and Sausage Ragu, An Amazing Shepherd’s Pie, and Thai Turkey Meatballs. Part Three has everything you need to entertain in style—Montreal Style that is.
There are so many must-try recipes in this book, but to name a few standouts — Bouillabaisse-Inspired Fish Stew, Lobster Risotto, Baked Salmon Two Ways (including one with Mango and Red Onion Salsa), and Grilled Legof Lamb.
The Dessert chapter features several show-stopping dessert recipes, including a Berry Pavlova, Cherry and Berry Clafoutis, Maple Pecan Pie, and more. The cookbook also includes Base Recipes for things like Flaky Pie Dough, Clarified Butter, Classic Tomato Sauce and other recipes that every cook needs.
The culinary journey continues with “My Montreal Address Book,” a comprehensive list of stores where Chesterman shops for “everything from kitchen equipment to ingredients for croissants.”
Just leafing through this book, reading the intriguing stories, gazing at the lifelike photos, and savouring the sensational recipes, you will surely feel like you have taken a wonderful trip to one of the most beautiful, vibrant, exciting, and culturally rich cities in Canada. Thanks, Lesley Chesterman, for the culinary journey through recipes that will be enjoyed again and again for years to come. Big marks all around for A Montreal Cook!
Excerpted with permission from A Montreal Cook: Recipes and Reflections from My Kitchen by Lesley Chesterman. Copyright © 2026 Lesley Chesterman, Photos by Maude Chauvin. Published by Simon & Schuster Canada. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
More MANDY’S: More Recipes We Love by Mandy Wolfe, Rebecca Wolfe and Meredith Erickson
Sisters Mandy and Rebecca Wolfe are authors of the bestselling cookbook MANDY’S Gourmet Salads and owners of the Montreal salad bars of the same name. Their latest book, More MANDY’S: More Recipes We Love, is dedicated to their mom Judy Wolfe, aka Joodles, who inspired their love of cooking.
“For inspiration, we rely on our past travels, our city of Montreal and brainstorming with our staff,” remark the sisters in the book introduction. Recipes are influenced by their travels to places like Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and their love of “everything European and Central and South America.”
While their first book focused on signature salads (menu mainstays since they opened Mandy’s Gourmet Salads in Montreal in the early 2000s), More MANDY’S features recipes geared to fall, winter, and spring (September to May), with chapters called Morning Fuel, Salads, Dressings, Soups, and Sweets.
A few must-try recipes include Island Chicken Salad, Summer Barbeque Salad, Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Soup, Smoky Cumin Southern Chicken Soup, and MiniEgg Bites. In terms of sweets, you will want to try all the recipes in this chapter, including the Toblerone Oatmeal Squares, Chocolate Fondants, Joodle’s Birthday Cupcakes, and Fudge for All.
Co-written with cookbook author Meredith Erickson, the book features glorious photos by Montreal-based food photographer Alison Slattery. The photos are so life-like they almost jump off the page—like the photo of Lohikeitto (Finnish Salmon Soup), where the soup bowl looks like it’s on your kitchen table just waiting to be devoured. What I like about this book is that it invites readers to step outside the box and try a few unique flavour combinations that are sure to ramp up any meal, no matter what the season.
Excerpted with permission from More MANDY’S: More Recipes to Love by Mandy Wolfe, Rebecca Wolfe and Meredith Erickson. Copyright ©2022 Amanda Wolfe and Rebecca Wolfe. Photography by Alison Slattery, Two Food Photographers. Designed by Cow Goes Moo. Illustrations by Neethi. Published by Appetite by Random House ®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Ltd. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved
by Laurie Wallace-Lynch
Laurie is a professional freelance journalist and an award-winning travel writer as a longstanding member of the Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC). She specializes in writing feature articles on travel, culinary, lifestyle, home design, celebrity profiles and entertainment news. As an avid reader and foodie, Laurie is passionate about reviewing cookbooks along with fiction and non-fiction novels and books on interior design and entertaining.
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