The Harbor Race and the Riviera Table

Monaco has staged its Grand Prix on the same streets since 1950, and behind the glamour sits a Mediterranean home cuisine of chard, chickpeas and fish.

Few places are so completely bound to one race. The Monaco Grand Prix was on the calendar of the very first World Championship season in 1950, returned in 1955, and has been a fixture almost every year since. Our records count 72 championship editions from 1950 to 2026, every one of them on the Circuit de Monaco through the streets of Monte Carlo, which in a principality this size is less a choice than a fact of geography.

For decades the principality waited for a winner of its own, and Charles Leclerc has made the wait worthwhile, with 9 Grand Prix victories in our records, including his home race in 2024 and the British Grand Prix in 2026. Earlier Monegasque entrants included Louis Chiron, who raced in the first championship season, along with André Testut and Olivier Beretta.

Monegasque cooking belongs to the Mediterranean, shaped by Provence and by the kitchens of northern Italy and southern France. Olive oil, lemons, oranges and fresh vegetables do most of the work, and with the sea so close, fish is generally preferred to meat. When meat does appear, lamb roasted with herbs is the favorite, while beef goes into slow daubes. The grand hotel dining that arrived with the Monte Carlo Casino gave Monaco a name for luxury, but lately there has been renewed interest in the older local recipes, the ones that never needed a dress code.

Those recipes are generous and practical. Fridays traditionally mean stocafi for lunch, Easter brings a chard pie called pasqualina, and barbagiuans, once a Lenten dish, are now eaten all year. Shop at a market, buy whatever looks freshest, and cook it simply.

A taste of Monaco

• Barbagiuan, Swiss chard and ricotta fritters
• Stocafi, Dried cod braised with tomatoes and olives
• Pissaladière, Onion, anchovy and olive flatbread
• Socca, Crisp chickpea flour pancake
• Soupe au pistou, Vegetable bean soup with basil garlic sauce
• Tourte de blettes, Swiss chard and Parmesan pie
• Citronnade, Still homemade lemonade
• Vin d'orange, Bitter orange wine aperitif
• Fougasse monégasque, Orange blossom and anise sweet flatbread

Circuits

• Circuit de Monaco

Drivers

• Olivier Beretta
• Louis Chiron
• André Testut
• Charles Leclerc