For many American Jews, Passover seder means one thing: tradition (cue music from Fiddler). We spend days in the kitchen making matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, and brisket and serve it on wedding china. But it doesn’t need to be that way. One year, I invited friends over for an informal seder where we ate savory breakfast—fried matzo topped with roasted tomatoes and karpas-inspired chimichurri—for dinner around a crowded folding table in my old studio apartment. It was one of my favorite Passovers on record.
The springtime Jewish holiday meal is equal parts storytelling event and epic dinner party. There are so many ways to interpret the tradition so it’s meaningful to you and your guests, which also makes it a hosting dream. But no matter what your ideal seder looks like, hosting one can be a lot—if you don’t plan smartly.
The most important advice I can offer? Map. Out. Your. Menu. In addition to mains, sides, and desserts, your guests will thank you for preparing snacks—chopped liver, crudités, dried fruit, whatever you like to nosh on. You can serve them before seder even gets started to stave off everyone’s hunger, or put them out when you get to the “karpas page” of your Haggadah and we eat the first bites of the seder meal.
You don’t need to do all of the cooking yourself (I would argue you shouldn’t do it all yourself). Delegate desserts or sides to a handful of friends and family members, so there’s one less section of your menu to think about. If you’re concerned about making sure that everything on the table is kosher for Passover, help out by recommending specific store-bought sweets or wine that fit with your level of observance. Or just ask them to bring flowers or show up an hour early to help with last-minute prep. Here’s everything else you’ll need.
Matzo and its accessories
Love it or hate it, matzo is essential for seder and all eight days, so stock up. Both Streit’s and Manischewitz sell one-, three-, and five-pound packages. Don’t worry about having extra—unopened boxes will last for months and cheesy matzo brei is really a year-round food anyways.
At seder, the matzo needs to be covered for part of the meal, which gives you a chance to add some art to your table with a graffiti-inspired cover or one that features the phases of the moon from the Jewish Museum Shop. If you are short on time for shipping, this simple floral one is available on Prime.
Seder plate style
The seder plate is a helpful guide to the evening, reminding us of many of the key parts of the Passover story. Customarily, there’s charoset to recall the mortar enslaved people used in ancient Egypt, karpas (typically parsley) to be dipped into salt water to remind us of their tears, maror (often horseradish) and hazeret (another bitter herb) to remind us of the bitterness of slavery, an egg to symbolize spring and rebirth, and a shankbone in honor of the Pesach offering.
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