ABSTRACT
As I start to draft this chapter, it is the middle of the Jewish holiday Passover. In my introductory chapter, I talked about growing up in a kosher household, but Passover makes the everyday rules of kashrut seem like a minimalist approach to dietary restrictions. In my family, we had special sets of dishes, cookware, and cutlery just for Passover. As children, my sisters and I would help my mother clean the house in the days before the week-long holiday. We would buy special foods-matzo and other items made with no leavening. Although we could have ordinary fruits and vegetables, many everyday staples such as rice, corn, beans, and lentils were off limits. Prepared foods had to be designated “kosher for Passover,” because of the frequent use of additives that might violate the rules. For the most part, this special food was expensive, tasteless, and highly re ned. One of the few food treats, for me, was chocolate (which I maintain should be accorded the status of a food group on its own). Chocolate was not a staple in our household, except for this one week when our cupboards were well stocked with kosherfor-Passover chocolate bars.
