Empanada making and eating is followed by a main course of thick cut fillet steak, mashed potato and roasted vegetables.

BBC: Hands-on dining in Buenos Aires

Best bets: heirloom squash and chestnut soup, coriander-seared duck breast with roasted parsnip and sweet potato sauce, pan-seared trout with sweet pea and corn pancakes.

FORBES: Fact And Comment

One night for dinner in the sand she made me (and a few others, but it felt personal) lobster with sweet potato salad and roasted beet quinoa with pink tahini dressing.

FORBES: In Montauk, Escaping to Shape Up

The extraordinary sophistication of a basic, black- truffle roasted Clark Farm chicken with caramelized root vegetables and potato-shallot pure is what special restaurant fare is all about: wonderful ingredients, creative and delicious melding of flavors, flawless presentation. l Cafe M -- The Stanhope Hotel, 995 Fifth Ave.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

Whether it is avarai uttakka - local beans cooked with potato, tomato, onions, garlic and tempered with mustard seeds, or sandagai - roasted tomato sauteed with small onion, garlic and coconut ground to a fine paste - the "masala made carefully after dry-roasting 17 spices and not bought off the shops" is the key, Indira says.

BBC: India's homemakers recruited as hotel chefs