Rachel McAdams takes cooking classes in Kensington Market

Rachel McAdams plays it differently than most homegrown starlets who find success in Hollywood: she lives north of the border in a Toronto Victorian, bikes or walks everywhere, and still sports well-worn boots from her days as a York drama student. Although she is currently gracing the cover of Vogue, wearing Dior and Dolce and Gabbana, McAdams says she isn’t interested in material possessions: “I really don’t desire things. I prefer to spend my money on experiences, on meals or travel.” Recently, her Toronto experiences have included knife-skills sessions at the Kensington kitchenware shop Good Egg, which prompted a vow to improve her vegetable slicing technique. She prefers to eat at “unstarry, cash-only, foodie-slacker restaurants” like New York’s Kasadela in Alphabet City, where McAdams opts for spicy chicken wings, grilled salmon skin and dried nori. Her ideal day? Kundalini yoga, grocery shopping and fixing up her once tumbling-down house, which she shares with her brother. This day sounds unconvincingly simple for someone who once dated Ryan Gosling and Josh Lucas, but true to her “famously private” reputation, we assume she’s simply leaving out the most salacious details.

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