Montréal has always had a flair for the experimental. The city’s reputation for originality precedes it, whether you’re tracing the jagged lines of its Brutalist buildings, lingering at a Leonard Cohen mural or wandering the stalls of Jean-Talon Market. It’s in the food, too — perhaps most of all. Montréal chefs aren’t merely cooking; they’re staging nightly culinary experiments with touches of tradition and terroir.
“It’s a chef’s city,” says Jason Morris, the executive chef of Marcus. “There’s so much talent here, and the whole spectrum is well represented from high-end to casual fine dining. It’s the amalgamation of our laid-back vibe, creative mindset, taste, poetry and culture.”
Morris has built Marcus into a restaurant that feels less like a dining room and more like a stage. “Honestly, the menu at Marcus is a reflection of the dining room’s energy,” he says. “We make so many dishes that never make the cut, but the ones that do need to represent the vibrancy and enthusiasm this city has for restaurants and lifestyle.” One moment, guests can order an à la carte plate of familiarity; the next, they might find themselves swept up by the chef’s counter for a tasting menu he “probably made up on the fly.” That juxtaposition — fine dining improvisation in the midst of a 300-cover service — is his favourite kind of chaos. “When it works, it creates a moment I’ve never seen anywhere else.”
Montréal’s culinary imagination is fuelled by seasonality, sometimes to an obsessive degree. Morris recalls apples from the orchard beside his mother’s house and honey from Miel D’Anicet making their way into Marcus’s menus. “When the product is right, it’s effortless to show it off,” he says. “Between now and November, we’ll start fermenting and preserving to lock in those local flavours through the cold months.”
For Chef Rémi Lemieux of Mémo, inspiration begins with roots — both figurative and literal. “The produce is amazing, and if you’re lucky enough to go to Jean-Talon Market every few days, you get to cook with it before anyone else,” he says. The market has long been a locus for Montréal’s creativity, a crossroads of the city’s immigrant cultures and Québécois staples. Lemieux’s own cooking is infused with those layered memories. “I cook from my best memories… all the meals I had growing up in the different neighbourhoods of Montréal, tasting food from so many cultures is reflected in the way I build the flavour profile of every dish.”
Risk, for Lemieux, isn’t an occasional indulgence. “I only take risks in the kitchen. For me, nothing is more boring than eating a dish that tastes exactly like it sounded on the menu. Surprise me! Montréal is like that — there aren’t many rules culturally. Just be authentic and true to yourself.”
That appetite for risk may be why Montréal’s dining scene welcomes chefs who want to spark reactions. Massimo Piedimonte christened his restaurant Cabaret l’Enfer — literally, "Hell Cabaret." The name, inevitably, ruffled feathers. “Turns out that the name has resulted in the natural selection of our clientele,” Piedimonte says. “Perhaps only the cool, fun, hedonistic, bon vivant epicureans are drawn to our dining room, which creates an exciting vibe for the restaurant.”
For him, creativity is as much about context as it is about cuisine. Inspiration comes from architecture, music and the city’s polyglot palate. “Our raison d’être can be traced to the Brutalist architecture that surrounds us, the music of Leonard Cohen or Elisapie, the street art of Teetz, the tomatoes sprouting from our vines that taste and smell like the sun, the joie de vivre attitude of the Québecois.” His menus are love letters — sometimes playful, sometimes political. “This next chapter of my career will be about paying homage to our Indigenous. Much more than land acknowledgment, we are revisiting Indigenous cooking and customs.”
Together, these chefs are writing the latest chapter of Montréal’s culinary story: one where no idea is too audacious, no memory too humble, no ingredient too fleeting. For Morris, the challenge is to keep pushing. “Five years ago, I was hired here as a disruptor, and I think I’ve gotten a bit soft over the years,” he admits. “Answering questions like these makes me realize it’s time to flex those old muscles and get back to doing the impossible I was brought here to do.”
In Montréal, creativity reigns. And for those lucky enough to sit down at its tables, the thrill is in watching chefs take risks — and tasting the city’s boundless imagination, one plate at a time.
Hero image: Cabaret l'Enfer
