Pastries feature prominently in Sephardic cuisine, and among the most distinctive - and most prized - are kezadas. An open-faced savory pastry filled with rice, egg, and a blend of cheeses (typically parmesan, feta, and kashkaval), kezadas have a kinship to potato and cheese borekas (flaky turnovers), and also bear some similarity to the cheese rugelach that Ashkenazi Jews favor. Sephardic cooking considers pastries to be symbols of hospitality and celebration. These tart-like delicacies, which women typically make, provide an opportunity to come together as a community. When making kezadas, women often drink tea and share conversation in the process, turning cooking into a social event. Because more women today have careers outside of the home, however, it is more common to see  intricate handmade pastries prepared for holiday feasts and special occasions rather than for weekly Shabbat dinners. However, the powerful feelings of connection elicited through food provide strong motivation for younger generations to continue the culinary traditions of their cultures and communities, such as by making kezadas.

In the Sephardic Heritage Cookbook, a community publication of Sephardic cuisine published by a temple in the greater Los Angeles area, recipe developer and contributor Linda Capeloto Sendowski notes how kezadas are a Sephardic specialty for the holiday of Shavuot. Known by a variety of names throughout the Torah, Shavuot celebrates the agriculture of Israel along with the Revelation on Mount Sinai and the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. During Shavuot, Jewish families traditionally eat meals of vegetables and dairy, including a desayuno (Sephardic breakfast) which includes the aforementioned kezadas. In her own cookbook Sephardic Baking from Nona and More Favorites, Capeloto Sendowski explains the significance of kezadas in her life, writing that “one of the fondest memories in our family is all of the wonderful things Nona [her grandmother] baked for the Jewish holidays.” While delicious in their own right, kezadas reflect the scriptural, historical, and cultural contexts of Shavuot as a holiday. 

Coming from the Hebrew word for “weeks”, Shavuot marks the seven weeks after the Israelites departed from Egypt. After receiving the Torah, Jewish people became obliged to follow kashrut dietary laws as a part of Mosaic Law. Because the Torah was given on the Sabbath, tradition tells how people could neither make their utensils kosher nor perform ritual slaughter for meat, leading to a feast consisting of dairy. Pareve (non-meat and non-dairy) white grains like rice, and white cornmeal also came to symbolize purity. Another source recounts that after the Jewish people received the Torah, they returned to their camp to see their milk curdled, necessitating the consumption of cheese during the first Shavuot rituals. The time of year that this Shavuot celebration took place was agriculturally abundant, evidenced by the changing of harvest from barley to spring wheat and the bountiful collection of dairy products. 

Although Shavuot was originally an agricultural celebration in Scripture, its significance changed following the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. Adjusting to new realities, the Rabbis of the time put a greater emphasis on celebrating the Torah and its delivery to the Jewish people during Shavuot. Though Shavuot includes practices common to other Jewish holidays  such as Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, and Passover - practices including prayer and abstaining from work - scripture prescribes no specific rites, customs, or practices to mark its celebration. Jews today celebrate Shavuot fifty days after the second night of Passover, typically in what is late-May or early-June in the Gregorian calendar. To this day, festivities still center around the consumption of dairy and retain a ritual focus that strongly emphasizes community and the synagogue. 

Through the changes in practice and interpretation over time, foods, like kezadas, have remained integral parts of the Shavuot celebrations. The rice and cheese showcase the rich history and traditions of Sephardic people, showing how receiving the Torah shaped what Jewish people eat during Shavuot feasts. Their preparation, too, serves to bring people together, within either the family or even larger groups in the community. Additionally, the gustatory experience of eating certain foods has become a ritual component of Jewish holidays which accomplishes more than just sustenance. Both the creation and consumption of food forge a sense of tradition and community during Jewish holidays. Kezadas are one of many examples of how cuisine and Jewish holidays are intimately intertwined, with food being an important agent in the transmission and preservation of Jewish culture.

Works Cited

Fishbane, Simcha. "In the Absence of Ritual: Customs of the Holiday of Shavuot” In The Impact of Culture and Cultures Upon Jewish Customs and Rituals (Brighton: Academic Studies Press, 2016), pp. 125-161.

Joyce Goldstein, The New Mediterranean Jewish Table: Old World Recipes for the Modern Home (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2016).

Levy, Faye and Levy, Yakir. “Shavuot feasting, Sephardic style” (The Jerusalem Post), published June 10, 2016, accessed January 6, 2023,

https://www.jpost.com/magazine/shavuot-feasting-sephardic-style-456455

Mandelbaum, Janet. "Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Influence of Female Ultra-Orthodox Jewish High Schools on their Students' Value of Jewish Food Traditions." Trident University International, (2020), pp. 1-140. 

Marks, Gil. Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. (United States: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010).

Marks, Gil. The World of Jewish Cooking. (United Kingdom: Simon & Schuster, 1999).

Piñer, Hélène Jawhara, and Gitlitz, David. Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora, From the 13th Century to Today (Boston, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2021).

Sendowski, Linda Capeloto. Sephardic Baking from Nona and More Favorites: A Collection of Recipes for Baking Desayuno and More (Beverly Hills, CA: 2015), recipe for “Kezadas: Sephardic Rice-and-Cheese Pies,” p. 49. 

Sephardic Temple Or Chadash Sisterhood. Sephardic Heritage Cookbook Ottoman, Persian, Moroccan, Egyptian Recipes and More (North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016), recipe for “Kezadas,” pp. 36–37.