Break out of the coconut macaroons-and-meringues routine with a bumper crop of deliciously different sweet treats for Seders and beyond. Sephardic chef-instructor Susan Barocas and veteran food journalist Bonnie Benwick will share recipes for pies and bars with alternative crusts, savory fruit creations, honey-kissed matzah fritters, and syrup-soaked nut cakes, as well as some of the history and culture behind them. Let’s cook, bake, and enjoy this unleavened holiday! You don’t have to be Jewish to partake. Bring a take-home container (or two).

Chef, writer and cooking instructor Susan Barocas is passionate about reduced-waste cooking and healthy eating, even when cooking for one. She is co-founder/co-director of Savor: A Sephardic Music  & Food Experience and has taught cooking across North America and internationally. Susan was honored to serve as the guest chef for three of President Obama’s White House Seders. She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and the international Association of Culinary Professionals. You can find Susan’s recipes for Jeweled Rice and Persian Spiced Fish in A Taste of Hill Center: Recipes from our Community Table.

Bonnie Benwick worked as a journalist for four decades, much of which was spent at The WashingtonPost. During her Food section tenure, she wrote the “Dinner in Minutes” column and other recipe-related features, and ran the test kitchen. She edited The Washington Post Cookbook: Readers’ Favorite Recipes (2013). Retired, she is now involved in cookbook production, and was honored to contribute two recipes (Date-Night Pasta and Blood Orange Salsa) to the terrific A Taste of Hill Center (2021). Bonnie has led Hill Center’s annual holiday cookie baking class since 2013.