‘Pesach Secrets,’ a new cookbook, will guide you to the table with elegance and joy.
By Jacqueline Fitzgerald
If getting ready for Passover makes you feel more stressed than celebratory, you’re not alone. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming or exhausting, says chef Batya Kahan, founder of Batya’s Kitchen, a kosher gourmet-meal preparation service in Brooklyn, which offers nationwide delivery.
Sharing how to transform the rush of preparation into an act of Emunah is a central theme of her debut cookbook, “Pesach Secrets from Batya’s Kitchen,” published by ArtScroll. “I’m trying to show women — or men, whoever is cooking — that the work is holy. It’s for a high er purpose. The whole reason we sit down, remember where we came from, and [reflect on] where we are today and where we hope to be in the future — is all because of that person who worked so hard and brought everyone to the table.”
Kahan, a wife and mother of five children, knows this labor of love can be daunting. “It’s a lot of meals,” she says. “The world turns over for one Thanksgiving meal, but during Pesach, there could be 21 meals in a very short span of time. I wanted to change people’s mindset from chaos to calm, so they can relax and enjoy the holiday.”
Key to this shift in thinking is being organized, prioritizing essential tasks, and skipping superfluous things. She recommends making some dishes, such as dips and desserts, in advance. The book has a section on freezing and reheating food.
“If you prepare ahead, you can come to the table like a queen,” says Kahan, who was born in Israel and raised in America. “I wanted this book to be royal and regal. We set the table with our most lavish dishes, we’re drinking wine — it’s a really elegant take on the holiday.”
What prompted her to reveal her secrets? After 18 years of professional kitchen experience, she wanted to share her knowledge. “Everybody always wondered how I made this, how I made that,” she says. The 368-page volume, which she calls a trusted Pesach companion, provides more than 150 gluten-free, non-gebrokts recipes — from gefilte fish and golden chicken soup to appetizers, main courses, salads, side dishes, blintzes, kugels, and desserts.
Additionally, readers will find Seder planning guidance and sections on kashrut awareness. Kahan says the book was recently ranked No. 1 on Amazon in gluten-free cooking and No. 1 in kosher cooking. “I was so honored, humbled, and happy,” she says. “All that work put into a book. It’s something my kids can hold forever.”
Most of the recipes are Batya’s Kitchen best-sellers, plus a few new concoctions like the layered apple-cinnamon crepe cake and the carrot cake. “My food tends to be toward the Ashkenazic feel,” she says. “But I have a variety of dishes, such as Moroccan salmon. My brother married a Moroccan girl, and her father, a chef, taught me how to make it.”
She has created and collected recipes for decades, and there are pages of thanks to her fellow foodies. “I know where every recipe came from and people are shocked, they didn’t even remember they gave me the recipe,” she says. “One woman ordered from me a French roast, and she said, ‘How did you make that so delicious?’ I said, ‘Molly, it’s your recipe!’”
Kahan spent about seven months last year putting the book together. “I worked really hard day and night. I worked crazy hours. I truly enjoyed every minute of it, but nothing is done alone. I had help with everything. My daughter, who was pregnant at the time, helped figure out which recipes to include and which recipes to leave out.”
Kahan launched the business in the family home and says it wasn’t easy for her kids. “It was intense,” she recalls. “I would work very early until very late during the holiday season. Our family didn’t have a normal life because I had the employees in the home and they took over. My husband didn’t want to go into the kitchen, so he set up a coffee machine and a desk in our bedroom,” she says. Everyone was happy when, in 2022, she moved to a commercial kitchen.
Her husband, whom she calls a financial guru, is her rock. “He is wise beyond his years,” she says. “Everybody comes to him for advice. He’s just that guy. We call him Google.”
He encouraged her to officially open her business. After all, she’d spent years cooking for friends and family, and they needed a second income. “The first year of Batya’s Kitchen I had about 18 customers for the first Pesach. Those were from my inner circle and we considered it successful. Now I have close to 2,000.”
Even as a kid, Kahan had a positive attitude and a prodigious work ethic. She acquired an interest in food early on and taught herself to cook as a teen. “My cousins on my father’s side were Chabad and, growing up, I used to go to them for Pesach. They had hundreds of people at their meals. They put the kids to work, and it was the first time I ever made a cake. The f irst time I saw cases of things, of potatoes and onions and carrots.”
When she was 16, her parents divorced and she started cooking regularly for her siblings as well as for her friends — and eventually began expanding her repertoire. “I didn’t grow up with a lot of fancy or gourmet foods. I grew up with schnitzel, mashed potatoes, and Israeli salad. It was a very simple palate,” she says. “But I loved to host meals. My house was always filled with my friends. It was like a party house. They knew where to come for a good meal. Whatever I know is because I love to cook for people,” she says, adding that, down the road, she learned from the chefs she hired.
There’s no doubt religion is important to Kahan, and she has a close relationship with God. She even refers to Batya’s Kitchen as His business; she’s the manager. Over the years (during which she has read, learned, and grown) she has become calmer, she says. “There were times I was praying, praying, praying, praying and what? God didn’t answer me, like how was that possible? I prayed so hard, it doesn’t make sense. Eventually I realized it’s not up to us to understand. I feel like I’m more settled. I don’t have to understand everything. I don’t want God’s job.”
In facing life’s trials and tests, she says she chooses to take them in stride, trying to see the good. For example, she remembers the time her freezer went down and the food inside spoiled. “I couldn’t get upset,” she says. “I just dealt with getting rid of the food, getting the HAZMAT suits, bleaching the place. And then I thought, ‘Why did that happen to me? What’s the message?’”
Kahan aims to do her best every day and is committed to giving back. Batya’s Kitchen supports local organizations, such as Renewal, a non-profit that helps facilitate kidney transplants, and the Flatbush Community Fund. Through Batya’s Kitchen initiatives, customers can donate to those in need. Also, she’s a longtime supporter of the Ranch at Bethel in upstate New York, a treatment center for young Jewish women. Having worked as a young woman for the Ranch’s founder Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein, she donates food to the facility. “I learned how to be a good person from him,” she says.
Part of being a good person is practicing gratitude. As she grows older, Kahan notes that she is more thankful than ever for blessings, big and small. “I wake up and I’m grateful for the breath I take, for every day I can be productive. I’m grateful that I’m healthy, that my children are healthy, that I have good staff, who really have my back.”
Not surprisingly, her gratitude extends to being able to savor meals with family and friends. whether it’s a holiday or not. As she puts it: “Gathering people around the table — that’s where memories are made, where traditions are passed on to your kids. The hustle-and-bustle is not what life is all about. Life is about spending time with your loved ones, with your family, with everyone around the table laughing and talking, and everything is about food. And if it’s good food, even better.”