At The Table with Caitlyn Sponheimer
If Canadian actor and filmmaker Caitlyn Sponheimer isn’t already on your radar, she should be.
Go see her in Warren Sulatycky's deeply moving feature, April in Autumn (at Carlton Cinema until October 31st, then playing across Canada in Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary). She not only stars as April, but co-wrote and co-produced the flick, recently featured at Cannes Marché du Film under Telefilm's Best of Canadian Cinema.
Earlier this year, she reunited with Sulatycky to collaborate on his second feature Jasmine Road, currently in post-production and set for release in 2020.
After studying acting at New York’s renowned Neighbourhood Playhouse School of the Theatre (alumni include: Robert Duvall, Jeff Goldblum, Connie Britton, and Allison Janney), Sponheimer has gone on to work in a variety of roles for film, television, and video games.
Catch her on a number of TV shows, including Amazon's The Boys, Freeform's The Bold Type, and Global's new series, Nurses. And her directorial debut - Kitty's Naughty Knickers - a dark comedy she penned, has been nominated by the Director's Guild of Canada for “Best Short Film 2019.”
When she’s not writing, acting, directing or producing, she can be found in her tiny kitchen whipping up meals, in the 6ix for a burger and beer, and… you’ll have to read on to find out the rest.
Occupation
Actor and Filmmaker.
Place of Residence
Currently Toronto/Montreal.
The last thing you ate
A vegan poké bowl from Calii Love.
If you were left to your own devices to make something at home, what would it likely be?
Oh gosh, probably something with ketchup. Don’t shame me people. I’d say a chili of some sort, with lots of veggies, tomatoes and beans, with avocado and cilantro on top, and a salad on side. I do make a butternut squash quiche with sage that is great, but I don’t always love or feel like cooking, so it’s got to be a special day to get into that.
When staying at a hotel, what are you raiding from the mini fridge?
Gin.
Guilty pleasure
Beef. I love beef, but I try not to eat meat anymore from places I don’t know whether the animals were treated humanly or not. I don’t believe we should associate negative feelings with our food, so no guilt about eating, but perhaps guilt about eating animals when I don’t know how they were treated.
That wasn’t as much fun as just saying chocolate cake, was it?
Drink of choice
I love an Aperol Spritz but my favorite drink of all time - drum roll please… is an Old Cuban. Don’t know what it is? You’re missing out.
Favourite meal of the day and why
I really love dinner, but it isn’t so much because of the types of food we eat at dinner, but because of the people.
Normally, I find dinner is the meal I eat most with other people. Maybe that’s because the day is winding down and we all need some time to relax. There is often lots of conversation, good spirits, laughs, and that is what I like the most about dinner. I don’t love eating alone, so sharing that meal is why it’s my favorite.
Favourite cookbooks to use
I usually Google recipes if I’m going to follow something and find the one that seems to fit what I’m feeling like. Sometimes they’re on small blogs or big recipe sites. Once I settle in a place for a while, I think I’ll go get some cool new cookbooks. I do have a cookbook only about squashes and pumpkins, and literally every recipe in there is incredible - at least in the fall!
Favourite cookbooks just to look at: I hope this isn’t disappointing but I’m not one to look at food pictures much or watch the cooking shows… but I definitely love and enjoy food just the same! My best friends are great cooks and their favourite book is Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi.
Three items always in your fridge
Yogurt, ground coffee, and some sort of fruit: apples or berries.
Top three Toronto restaurants
Burdock -They also have an event space which is super cool, but there food and drinks are really great.
Barrio Coreano – It is Korean Mexican fusion - very tasty.
Jerk King - It isn’t really a restaurant per se, but they serve some good comforting made-with-love food. Please don’t ask how many times I’ve been.
Go-to food and bev order at a restaurant
Probably a hamburger and a beer - you can never go wrong with that and it’s my fave. But depending on the place, if we’re going a little more upscale, then: beef tartare, some sort of veggie or salad, and red wine.
Would you rather – Go to farmers’ market/nearest pub/food truck?
Oh, this is a toughie because they’re all so different and I love them all! I think I’d have to take the easy path and say all, depending on my mood. But to actually answer properly, I think I’d have to say the farmers’ market because the food is so fresh and healthy and that makes all the difference in how we feel… also, if the bf is cooking that is. *wink*
Describe your kitchen
I’m currently in transition, but my kitchen is very small - next to no counter space - so my roomie and I cut veggies at the table, sitting.
It’s a beautiful old apartment with high ceilings, and there is actually a dumb waiter behind the fridge, so… also a perfect setting for a horror film.
We think the building used to all be one place, not apartments. No dishwasher, a door facing an empty courtyard, a shelf to hold spices, a one-sided sink with suspiciously changing extreme water temperatures, and glass-paned cupboards that reach the ceiling, so you can see the mess inside. It is charming, but a tad small to cook big meals in.
Describe your cooking style
I’d say its very “dog-discovering-his-own-existence-in-a-mirror style”. What is that you ask? Unsure but excited, and obviously not much prior planning or thought… just discovering it along the way.
And maybe sometimes slightly afraid.
Ideal food day: from the time you wake up until bed, what are you having?
A big glass of water with a nice coffee first, then a healthy brekkie to start the day. I’d have a big bowl of Greek yogurt with shaved coconut, almond butter, nuts, granola, and berries, or maybe hard boiled eggs on sourdough with olive oil, avocado, tomato. Either/or, I’d be very happy.
A nice big salad full of veggies, greens, nuts, grains, legumes, etc. - whatever I felt like that day - with olive oil and a white wine vinegar, topped with lots of fresh herbs like basil, mint, parsley. I’d have that with water and maybe since this is an ideal day, a fresh-pressed juice with ginger and beets.
Ideal food day - Then dinner would be a medium-rare hamburger from a happy cow, with a green salad and a beer - shared, of course, with friends or family.
And…ice cream. Obviously.
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