The Passover festival is as important for the Jewish community as Christmas is to the Christians. Starting at sunset on Saturday 19th April and running until sunset on Sunday 27th, the festival is a marked reminder of the Jews' long and turbulent history. As well as being steeped in tradition and history, the presence and importance of food during Passover is great.

Passover celebrates the time in history when the Hebrew people were able to escape slavery in Egypt. The story goes that God rescued the "Children of Israel" by sending the 10 plagues to punish the Egyptian people. After the ten plagues, the pharoah released the Hebrew slaves and they fled so quickly without giving their bread time to rise.

Forbidden Bread
Thus, during Passover, Jews do not eat any bread products or anything made with flour that may have had time to rise. In the place of risen bread, matza or unleavened bread is eaten throughout the eight-day period. Any bread or similar foods are called chametz and to be sure that a house is free of even single crumb of chametz, families set about cleaning their homes from top to toe.

To ensure this purification, different utensils and cutlery are used for Passover and seeing as they are only used for one week per year, Passover cookware usually gets handed down throughout the generations to become precious family heirlooms.

The forbidding of bread and flour makes Jewish Passover cooking an imaginative and inventive experience. Using substitutes such as potatoes and matzoh, Jewish women cook up a sweet and savoury storm and always include sweet fruits such as dates and figs, and lots of honey.

The Seder
Traditionally the Seder, meaning the order or arrangement, is the main meal of the festival and can be eaten on any night during the festival. However, in most Jewish communities, the Seder takes place on the first and second nights.

The Seder often continues into the night and is characterised by the drinking of wine, the reading of the Haggadah- the story of the Hebrew's exodus from Egypt - and the singing of Passover songs. Passover is a time when Jews show their gratitude to their ancestors for fleeing slavery, as they would not be in the same positions that they are today.

Food consumption during the Seder is also symbolic as families take it in turns to sample from the Seder plate which contains the following items:

Maror and chazeret:
these are bitter herbs that symbolise the harsh reality of slavery.

Charoset:
a sweet, brown mixture representing the mortar used by Hebrew slaves to build the houses of Egypt. The recipe for charoset differs greatly, with Ashkenazi Jews using walnuts, apples, cinnamon and red wine, while Sephardi Jews use dates, honey, cinnamon and red wine.

Karpas:
this is a simple vegetable such as celery or boiled potato which is then dipped in salt water. This combination symbolises the tears shed by the Israelites and the simple foods which they had access to.

Z'roa:
this is a roasted lamb or goat shank which symbolises a lamb sacrifice made in the Temple of Jerusalem. The shank serves as a visual reminder only and is not eaten or handled at any time during the Seder.

Beitzah:
this is an egg, which represents the death, or destruction, of the Temple of Jerusalem. As an egg is the first thing to be served to mourners after a funeral, this is a fitting symbol of the Jews' loss. This is neither eaten or handled, or if it is eaten, it is dipped in salt water to represent tears.

Sense of Belonging
As well as a time for reflection and gratitude, Passover is also a time that brings families and communities together under one roof to celebrate Jewish history. Naomi Alderman, writer and broadcaster says of that her upbringing and adult life have had the warming continuity of the Passover celebration, "There is a satisfaction, and a sense of permanence and stability, to be found in eating the same foods that I did at that time last year. This feeling swells further with the thought that the same rituals were performed not only by my parents and grandparents but ancestors whose names had been forgotten 100 years ago."