She talked of her passion for November's first olive oils and how she rushes to Italy to

She talked of her passion for November's first olive oils and how she rushes to Italy to get the first pressing. And she dished up the best pesto I have ever had in this country.The thing I love about Rose is that she always pushes herself. I like to layer flavours and often find them a distraction - rather like blotting paper. But the River Caf?akes the most delicious pasta ever, so I was eager to learn.For three hours Rose talked and cooked. "She has lots of single-colour flowers which are hard to get, amazing annuals that go right through to the frost, fabulous edible flowers and a great salad range."The tour finishes in the greenhouse, inside which were the most amazing tomatoes I have ever seen in the UK - black krim, brandywine, sungold and principe borghese - all sweet, plump and ripe.Rose arrived with a car full of olive oils, pecorinos, Parmesans and flour imported from Italy to make pasta. This is something that I know nothing about as I rarely cook with carbohydrates. It's 5.30am on a mild morning and I'm heading to Perch Hill Farm in East Sussex.

Despite the ungodly hour, Wendy Fogarty, Petersham's "forager" (produce buyer), has agreed to accompany me. I have an abject fear of motorways and, without her, getting there would be tricky. Perch Hill is run by Sarah Raven ( www.thecuttinggarden ). I've heard so much about it thanks to Lucy, who runs Petersham's kitchen garden. Apparently, much of the stuff we produce came from Sarah's seed library.

So when I heard that Lucy's mother, Rose Gray of the River Caf?was giving a lesson there, I had to go. I have long had profound respect for Rose and she was enormously helpful when Petersham first opened. Perch Hill is nestled in a gentle, and very English landscape and feels small and intimate Sarah took us on a tour of her incredible garden. It's crammed with chard, kale, cabbages and a huge array of lettuces "Sarah has a good eye," says Lucy. The menu is a similar mix of old and new with venison goulash and dumplings sitting alongside yellow-fin tuna steak tartare with Keta caviar and sesame seeds.They have been serving pierogi, a sort of Polish version of Cornish pasties, since 1876 at U Hopfera, Krakowskie Przedmiescie 53, Warsaw (00 48 22 828 7352; pierogiswiata.civ.pl), which has given them time to come up with more than 50 varieties, including a chocolate one.Taking its cue from the travels of the early 20th-century Russian singer, poet and performer Alexander Vertinsky, the menu at Vertinsky, 3 Ostozhenka, Moscow (00 7 495 202 05 70; vertinsky ), wanders around the globe and serves both shark fin soup and beef stroganoff.. The Ekvinocijo platter features four types of fish, grilled and served with cabbage and potatoes.The contemporary paintings of the Czech artist Michal Halva provide a colourful counterpoint to the antique furniture at Restaurant David, 21/611 Mala strana, Prague, Czech Republic (00 420 257 533 109; restaurant-david.cz).

The menu at one of Slovenia's most highly rated restaurants includes bear, braised in sauce Chassuer with prunes, red pepper and bread dumpling.Despite its disturbing moniker, there is nothing deadly about Fatal, Vaci utca 67, Budapest 1052 (00 36 1 266 2607). While we Brits have greedily welcomed French, Italian and Spanish cuisine we have been less enthusiastic about exploring the food from a little further east on the map. This is a pity, as there is much to be enjoyed about the hearty soups, stews and braised dishes that form the basis of the cuisine of our Eastern European neighbours. A fairy-tale log cabin festooned with stuffed animals and wooden spoons, Burebista, Calea Mosilor 195, Bucharest, Romania (00 40 21 201 9704; restaurantburebista.ro) is somewhere you would not go to for the interior design, but for gutsy dishes such as veal ragout and grilled carp. If you go down to JB, Miklosiceva 17, 1000 Ljubljana (00 386 1 433 13 58; jb-slo ) today, you're in for a big surprise (and one that is rather disturbing for anyone concerned about conservation). The restaurant is named after the wooden plates that the traditional dishes such as stuffed cabbage are served on.Tucked away up an alley by the city walls, Ekvinocijo Konoba, Ilije Sarake 10, Dubrovnik (00 385 20 323 633; ekvinocijo.tripod ) is worth seeking out for its renditions of traditional Croatian food. It's a shambolic way to carry on and symptomatic of age-group rugby in England The national junior sides are a complete waste of money. Young players should be developed within the clubs."The critic was Rob Andrew, then Newcastle's director of rugby who has since, of course, become England's elite supremo.