I've just been to Australia - hence the radio silence - where dips and spreads seem all the rage but with inventive ingredients like smoked tomato, feta and cashew.

The pastas - tender gnocchi with fresh tomato sauce; linguine blackened with squid ink and tossed with garlic and clams; spinach parpardelle with smoked tomatoes and porcini mushrooms - are delectable.

I decided to start with a dish that no tradition-minded Japanese grill master would conceive of - barbecued soup - a sort of gazpacho made with smoked tomatoes, peppers and onions.

Underseasoned roasted chicken ($15) was ordinary and received little help from its smoked tomato and poblano salsa plate mates.

The grilled ringlets of tender squid are irresistible over creamy polenta, encircled by a delightful light sauce of smoked tomatoes.

He makes a brilliant sauce of smoked tomatoes blended with peppers and plenty of cilantro, and offers it with grilled red snapper and a snappy relish of black-eyed peas, peppers and melon.

Add the smoked tomatoes and cilantro and stir, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

Some alluring and light lunch offerings included spicy prawns with smoked tomatoes and pistachio oil; poached smoked black cod with a butternut vinaigrette and caper-potato latke, and Szechuan roasted pork tenderloin with orange-cilantro oil.

Among seafood selections, there is an excellent grilled salmon with pulpy smoked tomatoes and a flanlike corn pudding sharpened with minced poblano peppers.

When the mood strikes, Ms. Córdova drops the pan-Latin project and simply makes something she likes, like ravioli stuffed with white beans and covered in a sauce of smoked tomatoes.