While matzo, symbolic of the flat, unleavened bread that had no time to rise when the Jews fled Egypt, is also referred to at Passover seders as the “bread of affliction,” it’s not the only thing Jews ate as they wandered in the desert for 40 years during the Exodus. They were also sustained by manna, food that fell from the sky that is often compared to ambrosia or nectar. This year during Passover, local restaurants, bakeries, and confectioners are supplying both matzo and “manna” – savory and sweet foods – so the requirement not to eat bread during Passover, doesn’t have to mean a week of total deprivation.

At the conclusion of every seder, participants proclaim the wish, “Next year in Jerusalem!” But for those who are still in New York this year, French Provencal restaurant Aix (2398 Broadway, 212-874-7400) is offering an enticing consolation: a gourmet Passover dinner complete with seder plate and Haggadahs (the book that guides participants through the Passover service). For $85 a person, chef Didier Virot and sous chef Dan Levy will present their versions of the traditional meal Sunday, April 24, beginning with a stand-in for the typical matzo ball soup: duck consomme with matzo-meal dumplings and shredded ginger-flavored duck. The soup will be followed by foie gras coated in Spanish almonds, served with a charoset-like mixture of Granny Smith apples and lavender honey. Instead of gefilte fish, they will prepare carp baked with fennel gratin and coriander with a green olive sauce. The main course is leg of lamb roasted with thyme, rosemary, and sage, served with wild mushroom potato kugel.

On April 24 at Blue Hill Restaurant (75 Washington Place, 212-539-1776), chef Dan Barber will offer a special tasting menu ($68 a person), a New American interpretation that pays tribute to traditional Passover flavors including smoked trout with beet tartar (think beet-tinted horseradish); chicken soup with matzo balls and foie gras; and baby lamb with lentils.

At Payard (1032 Lexington Ave., 212-717-5252, www.payard.com), executive chef Philippe Bertineau will offer a post-seder Passover menu from Monday April 25 to Friday April 29 that includes matzo ball soup with white truffle oil; roasted chicken for two with matzo stuffing; and braised lamb shank with chickpeas. And just because you’ve temporarily given up flour doesn’t mean you can’t have Payard desserts, which that week will include dark chocolate flourless cake and Passover petit fours. The $48 prix fixe includes a glass of either sauvignon blanc or pinot noir from Galilee, Israel.

Rosa Mexicano has developed its own Passover tradition over the past three years: it offers a cooking class as well as special menu items for Passover. This year the class will be led by culinary director Roberto Santibanez on Saturday, April 23 at 10 a.m. at Rosa Mexicano’s Lincoln Center location (61 Columbus Ave., 212-977-7700; $55 fee includes a three-course lunch). From April 23 to 27, the restaurant will feature some of the same special dishes that the class will prepare, including tropical charoset made with pears, apples, bananas, dates, almonds, cinnamon, and sweet wine ($8); and robalo al limon, fillet of snook (a white fish from the Gulf) cooked in a sauce made of lime zest, garlic, serrano peppers, cilantro and creme fraiche ($24). (Special menu items also available at Rosa Mexicano, 1063 First Ave. at 58th Street, 212-753-7407.) If extra-sweet red wine isn’t your thing, you can drink four shots of Milagro Tequila instead of the traditional four cups of wine. Certified Kosher and made by Orthodox Mexican Jews, the tequila is a great match for Rosa Mexicano’s Mexican style holiday foods.

At The Minnow, a seafood restaurant in Brooklyn (442 Ninth St. at 7th Ave, Park Slope, 718-832-5500), chef-owner Aaron Bashy will serve a $25 prix-fixe dinner on April 23 and 24. Appetizers will include leek-and-matzoball soup; potato pancakes with sour cream and The Minnow’s own smoked salmon; and date charoset on unleavened toast points. Entrees will include a choice of seared tilefish or roast leg of lamb, both accompanied by mehasha, a Sephardic specialty of roasted onions and beets stuffed with basmati rice and yellow sweet peas, baked with an herbed matzo-crumb topping.

Other New York restaurants offering matzo-inspired alternatives during the Passover holiday include Sapa (43 W. 24th St. 212-929-1800), where you can opt for a rosemary-flavored matzo from the Tom Cat Bakery with chef Patricia Yeo’s herb pesto. At Nolita House (47 E. Houston St., 212-625-1712), chef Marc Matyas will make matzo pizza upon request. Kevin Reilly, chef at Silverleaf Tavern (43 E. 38th St., 212-973-2550) has come up with a Hebrew alphabet matzo-ball soup made with chicken consomme, baby spinach, chicken dumplings, and pasta made from matzo for the letters, as well as smoked salmon with potato-matzo latkes and horseradish creme fraiche.

Chef David Burke of davidburke & donatella (133 E. 61st St., 212-873-0200) finds many uses for the egg in his Passover week dishes. His creamy, savory matzo-brei-and-asparagus flan is served in a hollow duck eggshell as a first course throughout the week. For brunch on the weekend, he’s serving a hearty portion of green eggs in an ostrich egg, which, when cut in half, is as big as a large cereal bowl. Though it may sound like something cooked up by Dr. Seuss, the scrambled eggs take their color from fresh asparagus and are mixed with matzo and topped with a warm tomato puree. And Mr. Burke has reworked his signature pastrami smoked salmon, dotted with pepper and spices, into a napoleon-type construction, layering matzo, salmon, and spring vegetables. The visually appealing tower is a bit hard to eat – the key is to topple it and dig in, making sure to dip the salmon in the mustard and watercress sauces that dot the plate.

If you are hosting a seder at home, Citarella’s takeout gefilte fish is $6.99 a pound. Ambitious hosts can even make their own, as Citarella will also have the requisite ingredients: whitefish ($5.99/lb.), pike ($5.99/lb.), and carp ($3.99/lb.). (Order 48 hours in advance; www.citarella.com, 212-874-0383.)

To help you meet the obligations of the seder table, Balducci’s (866-278-8866) will compose a seder plate complete with egg, charoset, horseradish (bitter herbs), salt, and lamb bone ($9.99). (Citarella also offers a seder plate, for $14.99.) Balducci’s will also have a complete menu of takeout items for Passover, designed by chef Katy Sparks, formerly of Compass and Quilty’s.

For seder desserts, the macarons at Fauchon (442 Park Ave., 212-308-5919) are an excellent choice. While macaron is French for macaroon, these are something entirely different: light, crispy, and flourless almond-paste-and-meringue cookie sandwiches with flavored fillings. They are flown in from Paris and come in flavors of vanilla, chocolate, coffee, strawberry-mint, passion fruit rose, apple tea, lemon, and raspberry chocolate ($2.25 small; $5 large). Fauchon will also feature a megeve cake: vanilla meringue and chocolate mousse covered in curls of chocolate ($55; serves 8-10).

Baked (359 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, 718-222-0345) offers delicious, freshly made, pyramid shaped almond-paste-and-coconut macaroons, with a layer of chocolate and almonds on the base ($2 each, also available plain or chocolate-covered). For orders of more than a dozen, four days advance notice is requested. Delivery is available in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Famed chocolatier Jacques Torres livens up matzo by wrapping it in a layer of his dark chocolate. The chocolate-covered matzos, two four-inch squares to a package ($4), come in several additional flavors: dusted with fresh coconut; sprinkled with ancho and chipotle chilis; embedded with fresh roasted whole hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds, and dried cranberries; and peanut butter, made with a layer of Mr. Torres’s fresh roasted peanut and hazelnut butter, and covered with dark chocolate (66 Water St., Brooklyn, 718-875-9772, and 350 Hudson St., Manhattan, 212-414-2462).