Montréal in winter isn’t typically a vacation destination. But from February 27 – March 9, over 60,000 people come to Montréal for Montréal en Lumière, a gastronomy-focused festival that celebrates the cozy joy of eating at a restaurant in the winter months. The festival lasts twelves days, culminating in the all-nighter La Nuit Blanche on March 1, but restaurants all across Montréal will be hard at work for the entire duration.
Just as a curated fine wine will pair well with an epicurean meal, Montréal en Lumière brings in Michelin-starred chefs from all over the world and pairs them with the kitchens at local restaurants. 2025 festival boasts over 90 guest chefs from eight different countries, a record for Montréal en Lumière. Each year since its inception in 2000, the festival has had a different theme, and its 2025 iteration focuses on women chefs and winemakers, underrepresented in the industry.
Montréal en Lumière Makes Montréal in Winter a Culinary Destination
“I send the invitation based on the theme of the festival for the year, and I book people based on the kind of cuisine, too,” Culinary Director Julie Martel said. “But some chefs have relationships other chefs on social media, and now they take the opportunity to welcome an international chef in their kitchen.”
Martel is particularly excited this year for Nancy Oakes of Boulevard in San Francisco to work on a tasting menu at Monarque in downtown Montréal. Chef-owner Jérémie Bastien worked with Oakes, so their collaboration is a reunion where a mentor will get to witness a student’s growth. Oakes specifically asked to cook with Bastien, and Bastien said that “Boulevard was a pivotal moment early in [his] career, so [he] is deeply moved to ‘close the loop’ and hand over the reins of both of his kitchens to Mrs. Oakes.”
Sometimes, Montréal chefs are just excited about a particular chef they know and want to cook with them, as is the case of Hélicoptère. The executive chef ate at Rich Table, also in San Francisco, and was so wowed by the food that he sought them out as a collaborator for Montréal en Lumière. “What’s really important is the human experience behind the gastronomic experience. Some friendships are born after chefs cook together at the festival,” Martel said.
Celebrating Women in the Food and Wine World
Martel is proud that 70% of the chefs this year are women, from pastry chefs to winemakers. “Women are really underrepresented in the wine world, even more so than chefs,” Martel explained. She chalks this up to “the weight of tradition,” and that there are fewer examples for aspiring female winemakers.
Among many other winemakers, the festival will welcome Arianna Occhipinti, a Sicilian winemaker who has been growing grapes since she was 16 years old, at downtown restaurant Foxy. Occhipinti specializes in Nero d’Avola and Frappato grapes, and her wines will pair with Daniela Soto-Innes’s menu. Soto-Innes is the youngest chef and the first Mexican to receive the title of World’s Best Female Chef by The World’s 50 Best Restaurant and a James Beard Award for Best Emerging Chef. This pairs two powerhouse women who others in the industry might underestimate together for what promises to be a killer menu.
“Every year I do some statistics, and I realized that the majority of our guest chefs were men, and I wanted to promote having more women. I knew that women were out there, but sometimes they’re not executive chefs but they’re everywhere in the restaurants,” Martel explained. “It was not hard to find women chefs. Everybody knew a woman chef.” While these chefs’ creations can stand on their own without the context of their identities, it’s also important for aspiring female chefs and winemakers to see themselves as the star of the show.
La Nuit Blanche, Montréal All Night
Though you can enjoy the tasting menus all week, the crowning event of Montréal en Lumière is La Nuit Blanche, where the entire city is open all through the night. After a dinner at one of the participating restaurants, you won’t have to wait until the next day to go to a museum or an art gallery. Montréal’s metro system is also open all night, allowing transit throughout the city. Canadian winter nights are typically cold, dark, and uninviting—inspiring more staying in bed than going out on the town. Montréal en Lumière wanted to create a way for people to have fun, but also for cultural institutions to get an uptick in visitors during a slow season after Valentine’s Day and Christmas have passed.
Also, the majority of La Nuit Blanche is free. In the outdoor plaza in downtown Montréal where the festival also hosts live music performances and a skating rink, there’s an outdoor tasting space, La Village Gourmand, with demonstrations and a bonfire where guests can stay warm outside while enjoying the on-the-house food and wine. A gastronomic program like Montréal en Lumière proves that during the winter months, the snowy north shouldn’t let Los Angeles, Miami, and the Caribbean have all the fun—there are plenty of ways to still bring in visitors and encourage locals to enjoy food and drink even in subzero temperatures.
Consider enjoying world-class culinary experiences in Montréal this winter, or just take it as inspiration to look beyond warm weather and beaches for winter travel. Martel said that the best part of Montréal en Lumiére is seeing that “Everybody is out and smiling.”
Story by Emma Riva
Cover photo by Benoit Rousseau
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