When Jessie Buckley accepted the award for best female actor in a film at last Sunday’s Golden Globes, the Hamnet star unexpectedly thanked the production’s key grip, Tomasz Sternicki, for the goulash soup he made on set.
“[He] started to disappear a little bit during the shoot,” Buckley said.
“And I found him one day at the back of his truck, and he was chopping up potatoes and onions and meat, and he brought his ginormous cast-iron pot over from Poland. And he was making soup. And this soup started turning up on set. It was delicious. Thanks for bringing your pot to set,” the Killarney native said.
Sternicki listened to Buckley’s speech in the back of a camper van on the Spanish island of Tenerife, where he is on holiday.
“It was such a surprise,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe she said that during such an important moment in her career. It was such a nice gesture to thank me for cooking soup on set while she was receiving a prize.”
He added: “I was almost crying. I need to contact her somehow and say thank you for doing something like that.”
It is fitting that the first award speech shout out that the soup got was from an Irish actor, as the story of the 12-litre soup pot began in Ireland.
Tomasz Sternicki, the key grip for Hamnet
“The pot started its journey in Ireland a couple of years ago, in September 2020, while shooting for a film called Wolf,” said Sternicki.
“We were filming in this Covid bubble so we were stuck in this hotel. After a couple of weeks, I had this idea to cook something on the beach.
“I fed all the crew. George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp were the first to be fed from my pot … After that it became a kind of tradition. I now always take the pot with me on set. I love cooking and feeding people.”
Hamnet key grip Tomasz Sternicki’s goulash made a big impression on Jessie Buckley.
Sternicki, who was also key grip on The Zone of Interest, said the goulash contains “beef, onions, potatoes, paprika, and red chillies” but that “actually there is no recipe for the soup”.
He was able to make soup on top of his work because of the “excellent team” on set, he said, meaning he “could easily cook for everyone”.
He described the two Irish leads in Hamnet – Buckley and Paul Mescal – as “just wonderful personalities” and it was “a privilege” to see them perform on set.
Whether his soup will be thanked on the Academy Awards stage remains to be seen, but Sternicki is optimistic: “I hope she wins the Oscar.”