After being sealed off from the outside world for decades and experiencing a mass exodus, Albania is leaning into its culinary roots with the help of grandma chefs.

Tefta Pajenga, aged 76, is one of many pension-age TV chefs in Albania. In her nationally televised cooking show, the retired teacher instructs a younger housewife how to cook japrakë, a traditional platter of vine leaves stuffed with rice and herbs.

Japrakë holds a special place in Albanian hearts. It's typically prepared by families together and then shared on Christian and Muslim feast days in this religiously diverse nation. Like so many dishes in this culinary crossroads, the recipe comes from elsewhere (the name derives from the Turkish word for "leaf", courtesy of Albania's more-than 500 years under Ottoman rule). Yet, the ingredients are all local: dill, peppers and mint from northern Albania.

Today, Albanian grannies like Pajenga are teaching multiple generations in one of Europe's youngest-aged countries how to cook age-old dishes. That's because the Balkan nation has suffered not one, but two bouts of culinary amnesia over the past 80 years.

First, from 1946 to 1991, Albania was ruled by hardline communists who effectively sealed the small, mountainous nation off from the outside world, leading Edi Rama, the nation's current prime minister, to say it was once "the North Korea of Europe". During this period, cookbooks were burnt, imports were prohibited, foreign travel was banned, food was collectivised and shortages were widespread. It was a recipe for disaster.

Second, in the violent build-up and aftermath of communism's collapse in the 1990s, 710,000 citizens – 20% of the population – fled Albania from 1989 to 2001 in search of work in other countries. Over time, Pajenga said that many of these emigrants forgot their grandmothers' recipes as they adapted to new countries and cultures. Between the widespread food shortages during communism and the subsequent emigration after it, by the early 21st Century, many Albanians at home and abroad had forgotten how to prepare traditional Albanian cuisine – except for women of a certain age.

Ironically, Pajenga says that the Albania's transition to democracy compounded the problem. "During communism, people had one fixed job from 07:00 until 15:00," she recalls. "When democracy came, you needed more than one job to feed the family." Therefore, many of those who did recall how to prepare traditional Albanian dishes now no longer had the time to make them.

So, when Pajenga started her TV show in 2004, "my audience was not for chefs but for housewives" and also young people, "who were lacking the knowledge or had forgotten how to make traditional cuisine".

Albania's culinary culture has long reflected its status as a stepping stone between East and West. The Romans introduced grapes, olives and other modern Albanian staples when they took hold of the area in the 2nd Century BCE. Starting in the 16th Century, dishes like Arnavut ciğeri (Albanian liver) spread east from Albania across the Ottoman Empire, while sutlijaš (rice pudding) likely arrived in Albania courtesy of the Ottomans. And after World War Two, imported dishes like ajvar (a relish made from roasted red peppers, aubergine and spices) migrated south from the northern Balkans.

Some indigenous foods, like mishavinë (a type of white, grainy........

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