San Francisco: Coi

At Coi, visionary chef Daniel Patterson (an F&W Best New Chef 1997) idolizes produce in dishes like this upside-down tomatoes tart, in which quickly charred, peeled cherry tomatoes sit on a bed of pesto and are topped with a tomato puree (made in a whipped-cream dispenser) and a crispy olive tart shell.

Errenteria, Spain: Mugaritz

Dish: Red Fruits From the Garden

A year's worth of experimentation went into Andoni Luis Aduriz's voluminous edible bubbles, made with sun-ripened berries and beetroot. The Michelin-two-starred Mugaritz was destroyed by a kitchen fire in February 2010, but Aduriz reopened it in June.

Paris: Pierre Gagnaire

Dish: Les Cristaux de Vent ("Wind Crystals")

Legendary French chef Pierre Gagnaire gives the meringue a divine twist. He adds water to the classic egg white and sugar mixture to make them ethereally light€"a discovery by molecular gastronomist Hervé This€"and shapes them into gorgeous-looking sticks

Laguiole, France: Bras

Dish: Gargouillou

This beautifully composed salad by the super-cerebral Michel Bras can have up to 60 individually prepared vegetables, leaves, flowers and seeds, which vary depending on the day.

New York City: Le Bernardin

Dish: White Tuna Poached in Olive Oil

Seafood genius Eric Ripert juxtaposes the high and low in this playful dish of white tuna poached in olive oil, topped with delicate sea beans, crispy potato chips and a light red-wine béarnaise sauce.

Chicago: Alinea

Dish: Heart of Palm

At Alinea in Chicago, the always-forward-thinking Grant Achatz (an F&W Best New Chef 2002) serves hearts of palm stuffed with five different fillings€"from vanilla pudding to truffle-pumpernickel puree€"on five separate pedestals.

Yountville, California: French Laundry

Dish: Confit of Moulard Duck "Foie Gras"

This dish by chef de cuisine Timonthy Hollingsworth at the renowned French Laundry combines carefully shaved frozen foie gras with pickled huckleberries and blossoms from the restaurant's garden.

New York City: Jean Georges

Dish: Eggs Caviar

Jean-Georges Vongerichten's elegant Eggs Caviar offers buttery, soft-scrambled eggs served in the shell, topped with whipped cream and a spoonful of caviar.

Paris: Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée

Dish: Sea bream, citrus fruit/peppers, caramelized ventrèche

Among the haute dishes at French megachef Alain Ducasse's grand restaurant is this fish-and-citrus creation in which sea bream is prepared two ways and dotted with colorful cubes of lemon, yuzu and bergamot-flavored jelly.

New York City: Eleven Madison Park

Losing weight is not just about reducing food intake and cutting things out of your diet,there are a few additions that you can make to your daily diet that can indeed help you lose weight. We've found 10 foods stuffs that incorporated with a healthy eating approach can help you shift those extra pounds and speed up weight loss.

Grapefruit

We've all heard of the grapefruit diet but you don't have to live on a diet of grapefruit alone to lose weight. It's been found that that eating half a grapefruit before each meal or drinking a serving of the juice three times a day can help you drop the pounds. The magic ingredient is the fruit's phytochemicals and their effect of reducing insulin levels which stimulates your body to convert calories into energy rather than storing as flabby fat.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a super spice when it comes to boosting your wellbeing as it has many health-giving properties. In terms of weight loss, it's all to do with controlling those post-meal insulin spikes, which is what make you feel hungry. And you don't need to get much of the stuff to get the benefits; studies have shown just a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon a day can lower the blood sugar, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. To up your cinnamon intake either sprinkle it on to your breakfast cereal, or maybe mix it into your morning latte.

Chili peppers

Adding a bit of heat to your diet can give you a weight-loss boost. Studies show that having a spicy start to your morning, i.e. eating chilies as a part of your breakfast can make you opt for a smaller lunch. Apparently it's down to capsaicin which is found in chilies and red peppers that has appetite suppressing properties. Granted - chilies aren't the easiest of items to face as your morning meal but how about as a part of a spicy egg-white omelette or stirred into scrambled eggs for a spicy weight loss kick.

Fennel tea

Again fennel tea is a food stuff that boasts a list of health giving benefits; it's packed with good levels of potassium, magnesium and calcium as well as the vitamins B and C. But when it comes to the weight-loss stakes fennel had a double benefit: working both as an appetite suppressant and a metabolism booster which really are both useful if you're trying to lose weight. Fennel tea is widely available in supermarkets so add it to your daily diet to stave off cravings and boost your fuel burn.

Salad

Eating a low-calorie salad before your main meals can help you to lose weight and ensure you get recommended daily intake of veggies. And it's not rocket science as to how it works for weight loss, the key is the sheer volume of a salad, which makes you feel too full to pig out when it comes to your main meal. You need to make sure you don't drown it in a fatty dressing though - a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar makes the perfect healthy accompaniment to a fresh salad.

Green tea

Another powerful brew - green tea really has a multitude of health and wellbeing benefits. And if you are a keen into fitness it makes the perfect pre-workout drink; it's been found to increase endurance by as much as 24%, allowing you to exercise longer and burn more calories. But in terms boosting your weight loss power, a study carried out by the Journal of Nutrition, drinking five cups of green tea per day can help you lose twice as much weight, most of it where we want to lose it most - around the middle.

Celery

Celery rates well as a weight-loss food as you can actually end up burning more calories eating it than your body will take on consuming it. But by no means does that make celery low in nutritional value; it's super-packed with fibre (great for digestion) and foliate (the essential nutrient for the care and production of new cells within the body). Get your celery fix by making sure it's featured in your pre-meal salad, as an accompaniment to your lunch or as a healthy snack when you want to satisfy that 'munch' craving.

Lentils

Lentils are great weight-loss food as they have the power to really satisfy your hunger without packing your body with loads of calories and fat - that's often why lentils feature heavily as a meat substitute - they can make you feel like you've had a meaty dish minus the calories and saturated fat that come with eating meat. Again like celery, lentils are full of fibre and foliate so as well as giving you the full feeling, they are great for digestion and healthy cell growth.

Dark chocolate

Granted chocolate is not low in calories nor in fat, but dark chocolate has two major dietary positives that can lead to long term weight loss. First, it's quite difficult to scoff massive quantities of high-quality dark chocolate as compared to the milk stuff. Secondly, dark chocolate is very high in health-promoting antioxidants. In terms of a weapon in your weight-loss armoury you can use dark chocolate as a way to curb any sweet cravings, just a few small squares to quell a full on chocolate pig out is well worth the modest calorie intake.

Quinoa

Pronounced 'Keen-wah' quinoa is known as the 'mother grain' by the ancient Peruvians. Quinoa is good for weight loss as it has the power to keep you feeling fuller for longer due to its high protein content. Also the carbs that are present in the grain are released slowly into the body so you won't get that rush of energy after eating quinoa as you would with other foods like white rice or pasta. You can eat quinoa raw but we reckon it's best when it's cooked in a similar way to rice or couscous.

World's Biggest Sweet Potato (24.9 Lbs or 11.2 Kg)

Lebanese farmer Khalil Semhat, from the southern city of Tyre, couldn't believe his peeled eyes when he discovered he had grown a massive potato weighing 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds), setting a record for the world's largest potato.

Worlds Largest Marrow (113 Lbs or 65 Kg)

Grown by Ken Dade in Norfolk, the 65kg (113lbs) vegetable needed two men to carry it to a stand at the National Amateur Gardening Show in Somerset. The voluptuous vegetable has entered the Guinness World Records book, beating the previous world title holder by 3kg.

World's Heaviest Jackfruit (76 Lbs or 34.4 Kg)

The sweet tasting fruit weighed 34.6kg (76lb 4.4oz), measured 57.46 cm (22.625in) long and had a circumference of 121.28 cm on 8 August 2003. It was grown by George and Margaret Schattauer of Captai Cook, Hawaii, USA. Native to Western India, the fruit spread throughout South East Asia and first came to Hawaii in 1888.

World's Largest Green Cabbage (76 Lbs or 34.4 Kg)

John Evans, a mechanical designer who lives 40 miles north of Anchorage in Palmer, Alaska, holds seven world records for giant vegetables. One of them is this Green Cabbage, who weighted over 76 lb, making it a world record in 1998.

World's Largest Watermelon (268.8 Lbs or 122 Kg)

Weighting 268.8 pounds, this watermelon made the cut as the world's largest watermelon. Grown at the Hope Farm Store by Lloyd Bright, his family has a long history with watermelons: they set world records in melon size in 1979 with a 200 pound melon and again in 1985 with one that weighed 260 pounds.

World's Heaviest Carrot (18.9 Lbs or 8.5 Kg)

Presented by John Evans in 1998, this 18.985 pound (8.61 kg) carrot is the heaviest ever.

World's Largest Pumpkin (1689 Lbs or 766 Kg)

Grown in Rhode Island, the world's biggest pumpkin was shown at the Topsfield Fair of Massachusetts in 2007, weighing 1689 lbs.

World's Longest Cucumber (36.1 in or 0.9 mts)

The 36.1in cucumber was grown by Alf Cobb who beat his own record of 35.1in at the National Amateur Gardening Show, from the Bath and West Showground in south-west England.

World's Largest Cauliflower (31.25 Lbs or 14.1 Kg)

Also grown by Evans, this Cauliflower weighted 31.25 lb, making it Alaska's largest one in 1997.

World's Heaviest Broccoli (35 Lbs or 15.8 Kg)

In what was John Evans' first World record in 1993, this Broccoli weighted over 35 lb, making it a world record.