Photo Book | Spiral-bound with flaps | 80 pages | 8″ x 10″ | ISBN 978-1-942953-77-7
Winner of the 2026 Book Award in the Photo-Text category, hosted by Les Rencontres d’Arles.
NOT A COOKBOOK was first developed through the Magnum Photo Long Term Mentorship Program with Susan Meiselas and Matt Black (October 2021–May 2022).
At first glance, Not a Cookbook appears to be just what its title implies—but beneath the surface lies a layered, collage-style portrait of a restaurant and the family that holds it together. Centered on Resto Palme, a Caribbean restaurant in Montreal run by married duo Lee-Anne Millaire Lafleur and Ralph Alerte, the book offers a deeply personal and provocative exploration of kitchen culture, where food becomes a lens through which to examine family, friendship, labor, and resistance.
A longtime friend of the family, Reis takes an embedded, nonlinear approach to storytelling. Through photographs, texts, and contributions from customers and staff, Not a Cookbook captures not just the daily challenges of running a family business, but also the peripheral stories—of racism, activism, and the emotional labor required to build and protect something shared and sacred.
Despite its name, Not a Cookbook does offer some treasured family recipes—however, when it comes to a few key ingredients that make a certain sauce so special, Alerte leaves us simply with, “sorry blood, I can’t give it away.” The result is a new model for the cookbook: a radical kitchen guide rooted in community, resilience, and love. Less about what’s on the plate, and more about everything that makes the plate possible. (project description by TBW Books)
NOT A COOKBOOK is published and sold by TBW Books and is now available to purchase HERE.
“Fifteen years ago, I met Ralph and Lee-Anne through a mutual friend. We immediately connected over our shared love of music, art, and stand-up comedy. Over time, the couple opened PALME, a restaurant that celebrated their Caribbean roots in the heart of The Village. It was then that I discovered their remarkable entrepreneurial spirit and a work ethic that reminded me of my Portuguese grandparents—immigrants to Montreal in the 1950s who were among the first of their cohort to open several successful businesses, including a grocery store, a tavern, a restaurant, and a social club. I realized that, like me, Ralph and Lee-Anne were business-minded artists and children of immigrants—a connection that drew me closer to them. At the same time, I became aware of how much of their story I did not yet know. This was why I pursued a documentary photo-collage project about them, which I called Not a Cookbook.”
-Robby Reis
“As a restaurant owner we are constantly on the go and have a single minded vision of making the next day, week, or month work. We often don’t get a chance to reflect on our accomplishments, our success and what will be the next step until we are forced to look into it. When the project was first presented to us, we had an opportunity to live something different for a moment, and still be able to work, that was all it took to get us interested. When we started working on the project and having someone follow us around and document our everyday life, we soon realized that this was also an opportunity to look at our lives and really see ourselves as entrepreneurs, restaurant owners and parents. We discovered that we had lived for the past 5 years in each other’s space as business partners and husband and wife seeing each other everyday for hours on end, yet we still managed to have lived the same experiences differently. Having a cookbook for the restaurant was always someplace in the back of our minds, like most restaurant owners or chefs. We were happy to have had this chance, that allowed us to have a representation of our work and ourselves, that was real and honest.”
-Lee-anne Millaire Lafleur
