The International Kitchen offers over 40 separate itineraries a year, each focusing on a specific region. Accommodations are diverse, ranging from rooms on organic farms to the luxury of Villa San Michele in Tuscany, these tours combine most of life’s pleasures: food, wine, art and shopping! Select some  spectacular locations throughout France and Italy, stir in delicious itineraries and mix them with owner Karen Herbst's years of knowledge and attention to detail: Voila! you have December’s Pick of the Month.

Speaking of picking. . .it’s olive harvest time in Italy. Join Bev Gruber’s Everyday Gourmet Traveller as she journeys through the countryside. Offering fully guided tours, Bev's cooking classes take full advantage of seasonal specialties and events, such as Carnival, truffle hunting and, of course, olive pressing. Want to know just how passionate some people can be about the foods they grow? Bev will tell you in her article, "Olive Oil – An Ancient Italian Passion."

The ancient Greeks also play a large role in our culinary passions. The Epicureans derived their name from a philosopher noted for his love of fine food and wine, and poets tell us that feasting has always played a leading role in Grecian life. For a taste of Greek culinary delights, celebrate this New Year with a traditional recipe from Hellenic Adventures. You'll get a first-hand look at the birthplace of wine and learn how to stuff all those grape leaves.

For the serious student of cooking, Cuisine International offers classes in five countries, taught by noted chiefs whose books you’ve read and shows you’ve seen. All arrangements are on an individual basis and clients join scheduled group classes. Along with France and Italy, the tour company's offerings include unique destinations like England, Portugal and Brazil. "Portugal’s Places of the Heart" is a glimpse of Portugal's culinary uniqueness and growing attraction as a destination for food lovers.

Enjoy the luxury of Northern California’s Napa and Sonoma valleys or the magic of New Mexico with Epiculinary. Each trip takes advantage of local charms, be it a mud bath in Calistoga’s famous hot springs or a stay at a national landmark hotel in Albuquerque. Jane Butel, the creator of Tex-Mex cuisine, operates the Albuquerque-based school also leads a yearly trip to Mexico to sample regional dishes of local chefs.

Take a "Sublime Sojourn in Morocco" with Les Liasons Delicieuses, a company that offers tours from the U.S. Southwest to the Sahara. In Marrakesh, the winter home of French chefs Charles-Henry and Ségolène de Valbray, you can learn the subtleties of traditional Moroccan cuisine. Marinated salads, tagines, pastillas and couscous, all served family style, tempt the palate. Savor the first blooms of spring and delight in the delicacies of Islamic art. Make sure you bring back plenty of saffron!

Join Latitudes Expeditions East in the first of a savory series as Asian specialist Farina Achuck from Tante Marie's cooking school in San Francisco leads a "Taste of Thailand" tour. Learn the ingredients and recipes that form the basis of this distinctive and popular regional cuisine. Also in the tea leaves: "Taste of Vietnam," "Taste of Indonesia" and "Taste of India." Offering an array of custom tours to Southeast Asia, Latitudes can incorporate cooking classes of a day or more into any itinerary.

You Food Channel fans can experience Tommy Tang’s Thailand for yourself with Mindbody Travel. Tommy takes you through the streets of three distinct regions to shop for the best local products. Having eaten many times at Tommy’s Los Angeles restaurant, I can tell you it is one of the best in the city.