Authentic Macedonian Cooking Experience with Grandma Lepa: Handmade Phyllo Sheets in a Traditional Village Home

The Kajak.mk team is constantly searching for Macedonia's local heroes – the people who may never appear on billboards, yet dedicate their lives to preserving traditions that make our country an authentic and unforgettable destination.

We have never believed that tourism is about crowds. Instead, our mission has always been to celebrate slow living, genuine hospitality, traditional cuisine, family heritage, and the remarkable people every traveler should meet to truly experience Macedonia.

That is why today we are proud to share another exclusive story.

This is the story of 85-year-old Grandma Lepa from the village of Pepelište near Negotino, a woman who still prepares traditional handmade kori—the delicate dough sheets used for homemade noodles and pastries—entirely by hand, following a family recipe that has been passed down through generations.

We know that after reading this story, many travel agencies, experience platforms, and tour operators will want to connect with this family. Truthfully, that is exactly what Kajak.mk hopes for. Our mission is to discover, promote, and support the people whose dedication makes Macedonia a more authentic and inspiring destination for travelers.

Grandma Lepa's story is shared by her 23-year-old granddaughter Martina, with whom the Kajak.mk team had the pleasure of having a long and heartfelt conversation.

"In our family, we've been making handmade kori ever since I can remember," Martina begins.

"My grandmother learned the craft from her grandmother. My mother learned it from her, and I learned from both of them. My love for cooking later led me into creating food content online, and that's when the idea was born to transform this family tradition into something uniquely ours."

According to Martina, the greatest secret behind their handmade products isn't a mysterious ingredient.

"The biggest secret is love. Without genuine passion, you simply cannot make good kori. Of course, quality ingredients matter, but what truly sets us apart is that every single step is done entirely by hand—from kneading the dough to the final packaging. Unlike industrially produced products, every sheet is rolled out by hand, exactly the way our grandmothers used to make it."

Martina believes that preserving this knowledge has never been more important.

"I'm only 23 years old, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have learned this craft from my grandmother and my mother. Today it's becoming increasingly rare for young people to cook, and even rarer for them to preserve traditional skills. We need to learn from our elders while we still can, because this knowledge is slowly disappearing."

Interestingly, the entire journey began as a family joke.

Five years ago, while they were making kori only for their own household, Martina jokingly suggested to her grandmother and mother that perhaps one day this could become their everyday job. Her mother simply smiled and replied that nobody would ever buy handmade kori because almost everyone knew how to make them at home.

But Martina refused to let the idea go.

Just a week later, she announced on social media that the family was producing homemade kori and that anyone interested could place an order.

During their first year, they had only a handful of customers.

The following year, Martina and Grandma Lepa began sharing honest videos showing the complete preparation process and introducing the people behind the family brand.

Those videos quickly became a sensation on social media, collecting more than half a million views.

Today, the family business consists of four members—Grandma Lepa, Martina, and her parents—and they have already served well over a thousand satisfied customers, with that number continuing to grow every year.

The most meaningful feedback, Martina says, comes from the people who taste their products.

"Older customers often tell us that the flavor takes them back to their childhood and reminds them of their grandmothers. Younger generations, on the other hand, are discovering traditions they have never experienced before."

Making handmade kori is anything but easy.

Their working day begins as early as five o'clock in the morning.

They use white and wholegrain flour, free-range eggs, fresh milk, while semolina is added when preparing traditional tarana. Every batch of approximately five kilograms is kneaded entirely by hand. The dough is divided into small balls before each one is carefully rolled with a wooden rolling pin until it becomes paper-thin.

Afterward, the sheets are naturally sun-dried for two to three days, depending on the weather. Only then are they carefully packed into paper bags and shipped to customers across Macedonia.

"Each five-kilogram batch requires at least an hour and a half of active work. But more than anything, this craft demands experience, patience, and dedication."

For the family, preserving tradition is their greatest priority.

"Our goal is to keep alive what has been passed down through generations and to remain recognized for that. Today, fewer and fewer people genuinely preserve traditional craftsmanship."

Some of their most emotional moments come through messages from customers.

"Recently, an elderly lady wrote to tell us that the taste transported her back to childhood and reminded her of making kori with her own grandmother. We also have young parents who bought homemade tarana and handmade noodles for their children for the very first time, and now those children are growing up enjoying our family's products."

Since handmade kori can only be produced during the warm months when the sun provides ideal natural drying conditions, the family is already developing additional traditional products that can be enjoyed throughout the year.

By the end of our conversation with Martina, we realized that this isn't simply a story about handmade dough.

It is the story of an 85-year-old grandmother who still wakes before sunrise every morning to continue a lifelong craft. It is the story of a granddaughter who chose not to let tradition disappear but instead transformed it into inspiration for a new generation. And it is the story of a family proving that the most memorable travel experiences are not created in luxury restaurants or large factories, but inside small family kitchens where every sheet of dough is rolled with patience, pride, and love.

These are precisely the people the Kajak.mk team travels across Macedonia to find. Their stories remind us that authenticity still exists—and that it lives in the hands of ordinary people preserving extraordinary traditions.

Visitors looking for a truly authentic cultural experience can now book a private half-day experience through Kajak.mk for groups of four to five guests at Grandma Lepa's family home. Guests will learn how handmade kori are traditionally prepared, participate in the process alongside the family, and, of course, enjoy tasting freshly prepared homemade specialties in an authentic Macedonian village setting.