Oy! Such a SederBarbara Lazaroff's husband is master chef, Wolfgang Puck. She's Jewish, and he isn't. But for Passover, he turns his famous restaurant, Spago, into a huge Seder.
At $140 per person, ordinary matzo ball soup and gefilte fish aren't served. Instead, guests get Moroccan lamb and matzo with shallots, garlic, thyme and olive oil. For the bitter herb he uses arugula and puts ginger in the haroset.
The actual Seder is as untraditional as the food -- two rabbis walk through the dining room conducting the event with wireless microphones.
Grandpa's Passover
Fyvush Finkel, Emmy Award-winning actor from "Picket Fences" recalls going to his grandfather's Seders.
"Nothing was omitted. It took hours; he wouldn't skip a beat. He read it all; nobody else could read a passage," he says.
"That's what made the food taste so good. We were so hungry by the time he finished that anything would have tasted good!"
Children DO listen
Composer Stephen Sondheim recounts a particularly memorable Passover . . .
"My wife and I were at the second-night Seder of friends a few years ago. At one point in the retelling of the story of the Exodus, their 3-year-old daughter looked up from her picture book Haggadah and intoned solemnly, 'Pharaoh . . . yuck!' "
No rabbi could put it more succinctly.
Spielberg's matzo brei
6 eggs, beaten
2 cups half & half
4 whole matzos broken in pieces
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Soak matzo in half & half for 2 minutes. Remove matzo and soak in eggs. Fry in oil until golden brown.