Tasty morsels from around the globe, from gold-leaf sushi rolls in Moscow to a Khmer picnic at Angkor Wat. Plus hotel reviews from Hampshire, Paris and the Blue Mountains

Autumn is the best season of all for the travelling gourmet. Not only are the bosky, musky smells of the woodlands in autumn a perfect aperitif, but autumn is also the season of truffles and the greatest mushrooms on earth. No self-respecting gourmet traveller should live without an autumnal pilgrimage to Italy's Langhe woodlands where the famed black Alba truffles are snuffled out. Eat them at Guido, the restaurant of Italy's University of Gastronomic Sciences, at nearby Pollenzo.

If you find yourself in Germany these months, order a pilzpfanne, an exotic version of mushroomson toast which matches perfectly with a Blauburgunder wine; in France seek out cep mushrooms, served simply (fried in butter with parsley, accompanied by an onglet steak) and wash down with a glass of Savigny-les-Beaune. In Alba, the truffles are a perfect match for the local Barbaresco.

Autumn is both the best and worst time for wine tourism. It's the time you see vineyards and producers in frenetic action, and some vignerons, with wine stains on their clothes, will invite you in to taste their freshly fermented grape juice. But unlike food, wine is not best tasted fresh. I received an invitation from a top champagne house to come and taste its vin clair, the base wine of champagne (before it gets its fizz), this autumn: I declined because I can reproduce the experience at home by dousing a bottle of cheap white with spirit vinegar.

There are plenty of wonderful autumnal experiences that have nothing to do with wine, truffles or mushrooms, and I outline some of these on the next two pages. Happy travelling.

IN GOOD SPIRITS

Deep, rich stone walls, hidden courtyards, lustrous Spanish colonial architecture with nary a tourist in sight, plus the opportunity to learn how to make the native cuisine of the country you're in. If that sounds attractive, take a break to the Casa de Sierra Nevada in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. This boutique hideaway is a beautiful collection of 16th-century buildings in a historic town tucked in the mountains west of Mexico City. A tranquil destination in itself, it is famed for its El Centro restaurant and Sazón cooking school. Courses, which range from one-hour cooking classes to week-long culinary packages, offer guests the chance to learn to make signature dishes like grilled Oaxaca quail marinated in mezcal and Ajillo-style jumbo shrimp basted in tequila; and even learn the secret of making really good guacamole. www.casadesierranevada.com

WAT'S COOKING

Cambodia boasts a distinctive cuisine that any lover of Southeast Asian food must try. One of the most evocative ways of doing so in style is by being whisked into the jungle around Angkor Wat, sitting down among a deserted landscape of ruined 7th and 8thcentury stone towers, and tucking into a picnic of Khmer delicacies like sour fish soup with pineapple and lotus and amok fish - steamed fish with coconut cream and nyoa leaf. All of this will be arranged for you by the peerless staff at Amansara, the luxury hideaway resort nearby, where you can return after your picnic to a suite with private pool. www.amanresorts.com

BIG FISH

Everyone with a couple of billion petrodollars knows the place to eat sushi these days is Moscow. The Russians love their raw fish - and have plenty of stock - and it seems every Japanese chef worth his udon has been poached by some super-glitzy Muscovite eatery. The newest and most spectacular of these is the Ritz-Carlton Moscow. Ritz Carlton is the hotel group of choice for the plutocrat and even as you read this an oligarch will be taking the lift up to the glassdomed O2 Lounge on top of the RC and treating his two leggy blonde companions to sushi superchef Seiji Kusano's speciality of a Beluga caviar roll with bluefin tuna wrapped in gold leaf. It's worth the experience just for the view. www.ritzcarlton.com

PROST!

If you missed the Oktoberfest this year, don't fret: bierkellers are at their atmospheric best in the late autumn. The key is to choose carefully, as the best brews in Germany are not necessarily the most famous, and in general, the better the beer, the more discerning the bierkeller (and the better its cuisine). So avoid the famous-buttouristy Hofbräuhaus in Munich and instead go to the following. In Munich, the Augustiner-Keller (and try the Spezial, a rich lager beer). In Cologne, the Mühlen Brauhaus (for deliciously malty Mühlen Kölsch). And in Düsseldorf, Zum Uerige for a historic microbrewery serving rich dark ale.

FOUR SEASONS HAMPSHIRE

When the Canadian über-brand Four Seasons opened a hotel recently in the British countryside, lovers of the old-style country house hotel didn't know what to expect. And the Four Seasons really is an unexpected type of place. The spectacular driveway leads through still immature grounds (an arboretum has been planted) to a lavishly-appointed house which is a modern recreation of the original pile. Our room and bathroom were vast, grand and perfectly appointed, though we could have been in Texas. The spa raises the game for British spas, with slick treatments and a wonderful 25m pool under a glass roof. The service and drinks in the bar were sublime, and the outside terrace had a perfect English sunset view. And in Seasons, the restaurant, the produce is so local that the beef comes from the next field, the cheese from two fields down, and every food item has a (very low) 'food miles' count next to it. Altogether wonderful, if slightly disorienting. www.fourseasons.com

LUX RATING: 17.5/20

HÔTEL DE CRILLON

Walk into the Crillon at teatime and you are serenaded by a harpist; look around and you see a masterful crystal sculpture of an elephant by Baccarat. The Crillon is a classic palace hotel, with the most spectacular location of any in Paris (or possibly the world) on the Place de la Concorde. Our room was exquisitely, if classically, furnished, but before you get the idea that this is a fusty place, walk into the stunning Bar, designed by fashion-crowd favourite, Sonia Rykiel. The pièce de résistance is the Les Ambassadeurs restaurant. This is the place, clad in Sienna marble, where the annual Crillon debutantes' ball takes place. It's wonderfully intimate for a grand dining room. They even give ladies a little stool for their handbags. It's a two Michelin-starred restaurant overseen by Jean-Francois Piege whose classical-with-a-modern-touch cuisine gives rise to sublime dishes like golden Iranian Beluga caviar in a langoustine nage, tomatoes served three ways (cooked, raw, sorbet), and sea spider in a herbaceous bouillon. www.crillon.com

LUX RATING: 17.5/20

LILIANFELS

Australia is in the midst of a continuing culinary revival and one of the continent's most respected chefs, Hugh Whitehouse, plies his trade at the mountain outpost of Lilianfels. Approaching this hotel is a curious sensation, as you get there via the pleasant but unspectacular town of Katoomba, two hours from Sydney. The building is refined in a modern-countryish way, but the real thrill comes when you walk through the lobby and look out through the picture windows onto a view of a spectacular canyon, covered with blue-green eucalyptus forest and crowned by the mountains known as the Three Sisters. In Darley's, the restaurant, I ate a delicious barramundi slowcooked in Indian spices, and tortellini of local cheese - food that let the ingredients shine. The real test of a hotel's food is the basics, and the sourcing of the fruit and fresh breads at breakfast here were top-drawer. As was the wine list. The only drawback is the rather mundane suburban view from the front; make sure you get a room with a Blue Mountain view. www.lilianfels.com.au

LUX RATING: 17/20