Maria Zhekova Мария Жекова

Maria Zhekova is one of the winners of the Master Chef TV show in Bulgaria. After winning the prize, she became famous for her sustainable lifestyle and for promoting a natural way of living. She bought an old house in the mountains in Bulgaria and started restoring it using natural materials – wood, wool, straw, clay, natural paints, etc. – sharing the whole process of restoration with her followers on social media (mainly Instagram) and inspiring them to follow her example. Maria proves and promotes the fact that you can make your home energy efficient by using natural materials – you can insulate it with wool and straw and clay, and also use paints that are produced in a natural low-carbon way. In a sentence – making your home low-carbon by using materials whose production and supply was also low-carbon. She shows that it is possible to apply eco-construction measures to an old building. Many people are interested in the eco-construction measures that she uses for the restoration of her 200-year-old house in the mountains; they ask questions on her Instagram profile, where she has promised to describe the whole process and share it with them after the house is ready. Another passion of Maria’s is cooking and food photography. She uses natural and seasonal ingredients for her recipes that she also shares with her audience. She is also trying to show old traditional recipes and to cook with ingredients that our predecessors have used, especially people living in the mountains.