Our journey

When I moved from Iran to Finland, I missed my mother's cooking. The distance helped me understand what she had given me through it: the quiet comfort of knowing that someone knows me. She remembered my preferences, noticed how I was feeling and prepared food with me in mind.

During pregnancy and when I was ill, I missed this care the most. Sometimes all I wanted was a bowl of warm soup that tasted like home. Finding it was surprisingly difficult. That experience was the beginning of the idea for UPUPA.

Motherhood deepened my understanding. Behind an everyday meal are choices someone has made for another person: what they enjoy, what suits them and what kind of day they have had. Much of this work goes unseen. You notice its value especially when you need that same attention yourself.

I founded UPUPA in Lappeenranta because I believe a business can take this responsibility seriously too.

I want to bring this care into people's everyday lives, too. On UPUPA's website, you can choose your meals and delivery date and place your order in advance. We prepare only the portions ordered and bring them to your home at the agreed time. This makes Persian home cooking accessible even when you do not have the time or energy to cook yourself.

Our recipes are part of a living Persian food tradition. Generations have kept it alive by cooking, tasting, refining and passing on their skills. The flavours at our table carry the knowledge of many kitchens that came before ours.

Some of this knowledge has been written down. Much is learned beside someone else: how to handle rice gently, when an aroma changes and how long to let a stew simmer so its flavours find their balance. These details preserve the character of the food from one generation to the next.

I grew up surrounded by this care in my mother's and grandmother's kitchens. Now I return to it with a researcher's curiosity. I learn from experienced cooks, study their methods and test recipes carefully. My task is to understand what makes these flavours worth preserving and bring them to new tables with respect for their origins.

I begin with questions. What does a person need from us? What makes a meal right for them? What must we get right every time?

My background in engineering and research guides how I build a business from those answers. I observe, test assumptions and develop ways of working that make care dependable in practice.

Technology has a clear role here. I want it to help us understand our customers' preferences, plan preparation and learn from their experiences. As UPUPA grows, it is important to preserve the personal attention that inspired the whole idea.

Customers should experience this in concrete ways: clear information, thoughtfully prepared food and promises we keep. I want the person who usually takes care of everyone else to feel, in turn, that they deserve to be cared for too.

UPUPA takes its name from the hoopoe, known in Persian as hodhod. The bird has a special place in Persian literature. More than eight centuries ago, the poet and Sufi thinker Attar of Nishapur gave it the role of a guide in The Conference of the Birds. This classic of Persian poetry tells of the search for truth and the journey towards deeper self-knowledge.

Attar had a profound influence on Persian poetry and later on Rumi. His story explores experiences still familiar to us: doubt, longing, courage and the desire to learn. The hoopoe encourages the other birds to set out on a shared journey despite their uncertainty.

To me, this guide and messenger represents curiosity, trust and the courage to build something new. It also reflects what I want to bring from Persian food traditions to Finnish tables: distinctive flavours, cooking methods refined over generations and care expressed through food.

We cannot bring anyone's own home back to them. But we can prepare food with enough thought that, while eating it, they feel someone has considered them. This is what I want to hold on to as UPUPA grows.

Sepideh Sepasi
sepideh.sepasi@upupa.fi
Founder of UPUPA