Every spring, Susan Schnerb and her husband leave New York City for a food-centric week in, of all places, Reisterstown.
The couple swears the meals are so delicious and so modern at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center, they almost forget it's Passover, which begins Wednesday night - a beloved Jewish holiday but, with its ban on things like leavened bread, cake and pasta, not one widely praised for haute cuisine.
"You always hear, 'It's Passover, and I can't have this and I can't have that,' " says Schnerb, a Baltimore native. "But you don't hear anyone saying that at Pearlstone. There, you don't even miss the regular stuff."
Pearlstone is one of a growing number of hotels and resorts around the country offering Passover packages, an attraction for Jews who want to observe the holiday but don't want to deal with the elaborate cleaning, shopping and cooking required to do it right.
About 150 people move onto the bucolic campus outside Baltimore for the week. It's up to Frank Cleveland, the center's director of food services, to organize the ceremonial Seders and present everyone with days of meals that are not only satisfying but follow the strict dictates of Passover law.
And Cleveland's not Jewish.
"It was a baptism by fire," he says, joking about his first Passover at the center, which happened just a couple of months after he started there four years ago.
Observant Jews avoid all sorts of foods during Passover - the blatant no-nos include bread and crackers, but less-obvious ingredients, including canola oil, chickpeas, soy products, rice and cumin, are also forbidden. The devout even switch their toothpaste and toothbrushes to make sure nothing has been contaminated by any of the forbidden foods.
With so many roadblocks, Passover can be a culinary challenge.
"How do you really make a meal, a solid, well-balanced meal, without grains?" Cleveland asked himself. And he knew he couldn't let people down because, as he puts it, "Pesach is something special. It really goes back to the beginning of Judaism - the foods are the oldest, and the traditions are the strongest."
With the advice of veterans, the help of well-worn holiday cookbooks and some of his own creative flair, Cleveland has created innovative meals that have attracted more than a few repeat holiday visitors.
In addition to the chicken, turkey and brisket - meat-heavy entrees that people have come to expect - Cleveland has found room on the menu for lighter, more contemporary dishes.
