About Me

Hi, I’m Snejana (Sneji) (pronounced Sneh-jee)! Welcome to The Modern Nonna, where I create healthier, modern recipes 🍽️ inspired by my childhood in Bulgaria and Greece, and my life as a Toronto-based creator.

The Modern Nonna is a place for me to share recipes, kitchen hacks, favorite products, and cooking tips and tricks. Since starting “TMN” in 2021, I’ve loved developing and riffing on viral recipes. You may already be familiar with some of my recipes, like the famous Jennifer Aniston Salad that took the internet by storm, and was featured on the NYPost, Fox News, the Independent, and EatingWell, or my iconic Bulgarian Cheese Toast that was hyped up on The Kitchn and The Feed Feed. 

I’ve been sharing my recipes online since 2014. I’ve come a long way since the days of posting amateur photos of my dinner. Thanks to the tremendous support of my readers and team, I’ve been lucky to collaborate with incredible brands, such as Amazon, Smeg Canada, Ninja, Hello Fresh, Redpath Sugar, Kettle & Fire, King’s Hawaiian, FlavCity, Boll & Branch, Magic Spoon, Seed, Cadbury, Caraway Home, Branch Basics, Mid-Day Squares, Beekeeper’s Naturals, Amazing Hair Saviour, Kitsch, Hero, MVMT, Natural Heaven, Castello Cheese, Tao Clean, Cosori, Misen, Pasta Garofalo, President’s Choice, and more.

My work has been featured on The Kitchn, The Feed Feed, Well and Good, New York Post, MSN News, the Independent, Pure Wow, EatingWell, Amex, Yahoo! News, National Post, Rent.com, The Fresh Market Magazine, Lemon Magazine, and others.

Being The Modern Nonna has taken me far and wide—and I love taking my followers along for the ride—from my home in Bulgaria to being hosted by Mexico Xcaret Arte and Bahamas Baha Mar.  

My life took a long and interesting path to get to where I am today, and I have so much gratitude for my followers who have supported me over the years. Now, here is the story of how I became The Modern Nonna….

What do you get when you take a Bulgarian girl raised in the countryside, add a pinch of childhood on a Greek island, stir with adulthood in Toronto, Canada, and add a big dash of influence from a surrogate-like Italian family? The Modern Nonna, of course! 

I’ve been surrounded by incredible home cooks my whole life. Ever since I was a little girl growing up in Bulgaria, helping my grandma make homemade milk, yogurt, and cheese from her farm, I have loved cooking. 

I like to say I learned how to cook at the best culinary school in the world: my grandmas’ kitchens. Growing up in Sofia, Bulgaria and then later in Crete, Greece, I spent a lot of time watching my grandmas and mom cook, learning from them, and eating together. These are among my happiest and most nostalgic memories.

The women in my family taught me to cook the specialties of my homeland: peasant bread, shopska salad, grilled pita with feta, prinzesi, buhti, Bulgarian stuffed peppers, banitsa, and countless other dishes. But more than that, they taught me to cook “na oko,” which means “by eye.” In their kitchens, there were no measuring cups or food scales. Everything was measured by heart or by memory. This is perhaps the greatest lesson they imparted on me and it’s something I preach in my recipes: trust your culinary instincts, learn how to taste a dish, and then adjust the seasoning. The only way to truly learn how to cook is to allow yourself to experiment and let go of restrictions.

These lessons served me well when I moved to Toronto, Canada. Two big things shifted upon the move: my mom was busier than ever and needed help cooking and I became exposed to new “health foods,” such as avocado oil, mineral salt, nuts, seeds, and quinoa. Determined to feed us nourishing food, while preserving the flavors and foodways of my childhood in Bulgaria and Greece, I rolled up my sleeves at age 22 and declared myself the designated cook in the house. A mix of experimentation with modern health foods and recreating my family’s recipes led me to become the cook I am today.

Meanwhile, at the age of 15, I met my Italian 🇮🇹 boyfriend, whose family “adopted” me as one of their own, teaching me their multi-generational recipes from Calabria, Italy. They fueled my obsession with pasta and helped me learn Italian cooking fundamentals, like making authentic sugo (Italian tomato sauce), which has become a weekend-long tradition for me at the end of every tomato season. I’ve learned the rules for making dishes like affogato, carbonara, bruschetta, pizza dough, and more. 

So why the name, “The Modern Nonna”? Nonna, or “grandmother” in Italian, is a dedication to the women who have shaped me into the chef I am today: my grandmas, my mom, and the Italian Nonnas whose recipes deepened my love of their cuisine. The name represents me and my unique style of cooking: adding a modern, healthy twist to traditional recipes. When you try my recipes, I want them to remind you of homestyle food, just the way your grandma, nonna, bapche, or yiayia made it. 

Fun Facts

  • Food is both my passion and a hobby
  • Before I started The Modern Nonna as a full-time business, I was an insurance broker
  • My first job was at age 13 at Kernels Popcorn
  • I wrote an e-book on how to organically grow your socials
  • I created a line of organic essential oils
  • My mom and I owned an accounting firm
  • My mom owned a clothing store and imported fashion from Greece. My maternal grandma ran it for 20 years after that
  • My paternal grandmother lived in the mountains of Bulgaria, raising animals, and making her own milk, yogurt, and cheese; I used to wake up at 5am to help her sell our local dairy
  • I was born and raised in Bulgaria
  • We lived in Greece (island of Crete) for years
  • I lived in a hotel for months in the USA prior coming to Canada as a refugee
  • I was bullied for not knowing English
  • I currently live in Toronto, Canada
  • I love to travel and immerse myself in new cultures
  • Family and preserving traditions are most important to me
  • I have played tennis and volleyball all my life
  • I struggled with social anxiety
  • Both of my parents are amazing cooks
  • My dad competed in the Olympics for water polo, which is what led us to Greece to begin with
  • The parents of the Greek players on my dad’s water polo team taught my mom how to cook authentic Greek food
  • Both my parents are fluent in Greek (my mom also speaks English and Russian)
  • My top three kitchen tools are good knives, Vitamix blender, and a food processor
  • My all-time favorite cuisine is Italian, but I love any cuisine from the Mediterranean and the Balkans
  • In 2024, I partnered with Amazing Hair Saviour to launch my own dry shampoo
  • I helped my mom launch and sell mixed media art online

My Favorite Recipes