Heston Blumenthal
Chef-proprietor of the Fat Duck in Bray, Berks, which won a third Michelin star this year (tel: 01628 580333).
Favourite restaurant
We tend to holiday in France, and I always try and stop at the Compagnie des Comptoirs (lacompagniedescomptoirs.com) in La Grande Motte, just south of Montpellier. I've been going there for 10 years and have seen it evolve from small beginnings into a restaurant with 12 rooms.
Favourite bar
The bar at the Hotel Costes (see below). I'm not entirely sure why, it just presses all the right buttons. The music is played at the right level so that you can listen while sitting and chatting.
Favourite hotel
I love the Hotel Costes in Paris. I got into it because I loved the first music CD they produced - they've now released six albums - and went to see what it was like. It lived up to its fashionable reputation, though I didn't find it pretentious, just well run. I like its Napoleonic boudoir kitsch good looks.
· Hotel Costes (+33 1 4244 5000; hotelcostes.com). Doubles from €350 (£233) room only.
Gordon Ramsay
Restaurant empire builder whose group holds seven Michelin stars (gordonramsay.com).
Favourite restaurant
Alain Ducasse's Spoon des Isles at the One&Only Le Saint Geran, Mauritius. It's elegant and comfortable - and you never get too full that you have to sleep for the next few days to get over it.
Favourite bar
Lounge Lover in London (Whitby Street, 020-7012 1234) has the feel of an upbeat New York hangout. I also love its great refrigeration unit - very cool.
Favourite hotel
The One&Only Le Saint Geran in Mauritius always manages to create a perfect world that seems 100 miles away from any kitchen nightmare. My wife Tana and I have spent 10 days there every year for the last five years.
· The One&Only Le Saint Geran in Mauritius (oneandonlyresorts.com). Doubles from €395 (£263), half-board.
Darren Bunn
Chef-proprietor of The Greyhound in Stockbridge, Hants, which won its first Michelin star this year (tel: 01264 810833).
Favourite restaurant
My best ever meal was at Aubergine when Gordon Ramsay was there. But it's currently Le Gavroche (020-7408 0881, le-gavroche.co.uk) because I love the atmosphere and its romantic past.
Favourite bar
I'm not really a bar kind of a guy. But I do love pubs. My favourite is The Star Inn, at Harome, North Yorkshire (01439 770397, thestaratharome.co.uk). The owner has the balance right between old world and great service.
Favourite hotel
I'm always in the kitchen, and haven't had a long holiday in the 11 years I've been married. But we love to get away for weekend breaks. We try to get to the Ardanaiseig on Loch Awe in Scotland to celebrate our wedding anniversary each year. And I stayed at The Clarence in Dublin for a wedding, and am now hooked. It's a great hotel.
· Ardanaiseig (01866 833333, ardanaiseig-hotel.com). Doubles from £186 B&B. The Clarence (+353 1 407 0800, theclarence.ie). Doubles from £235, room only.
Rick Stein
Restauranteur who owns eight establishments in Padstow, Cornwall (rickstein.com).
Favourite restaurant
I'm not sure if I can name a single favourite but I've just come back from Marseille after a week of research for the next TV series. We had a perfect bouillabaisse at L'Epuisette, a weathered wooden building by the water on La Corniche. The wine was Domaine de Tempiers which we sell at The Seafood Restaurant and in my opinion is the best rosé in the world.
Favourite bar
I've been going to Harry's Bar in Paris since I was 18. It's full of ex-pat Americans and they sell great hotdogs. The French House in Soho, London, is another favourite. The first time I went I ordered a pint and was told they only do halves. And I love The Groucho Club in Soho; it has a slightly scruffy style that just gets better with time.
Favourite hotel
I've always been very partial to The Clarence in Dublin. It's very comfortable with excellent food and a very nice bar with great Guinness. Chateau St James on the outskirts of Bordeaux has mind-bogglingly trendy rooms, one even houses a Harley Davidson motorbike.
· Chateau St James (+33 557 970 600, saintjames-bouliac.com. Rooms from €183)
Angela Hartnett
Michelin-starred head chef at The Connaught, London (tel: 020-7592 1222).
Favourite restaurant
The Dal Pescatorie in Montova near Verona in Italy. You're made to feel so welcome, you almost feel as though you're at home - and the menu delivers 100% every time.
Favourite bar
The bar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (metmuseum.org) has stunning views over Central Park. While there, you feel completely at the hub of it all.
Favourite hotel
The One&Only Royal Mirage in Dubai. Like most hotels in Dubai, it offers amazing service, but it doesn't feel like you're in Dubai - you could be on a Caribbean beach or in the Far East.
· (oneandonlyresorts.com. Doubles from AED 1,415, B&B - approximately £210).
Shaun Hill
Chef-proprietor of Michelin-starred The Merchant House in Ludlow, Shropshire (tel: 01584 875438).
Favourite restaurant
Almost certainly Lindsay House in London (020- 7439 0450). I love their gutsy food - they're not afraid to use offal and fish to its best advantage. While it's not cheap, it is good value, and offers something different. I also like Hisbiscus (01584 872325) up the road from me in Ludlow. The food is great, and I can clamber home afterwards.
Favourite bar
Any bar in the El Born area of Barcelona, a Covent Garden kind of place that's still being gentrified. Many of the bars concentrate on my favourite kind of South American cocktails, caipriniah and mojitos - you don't get too much of that sort of thing in Ludlow.
Favourite hotel
The Explora en Patagonia in Chile's Torres del Paine. They've created something that makes it look as though you're roughing it, while being pampered all over. The wilderness is just outside plate glass windows, and there's as much booze and grub as you can eat all included.
· Explora en Patagonia (explora.com). Minimum three-night stay, $1,773 (£983) per person, including all food, drink and activities.
Nick Nairns
Michelin-starred chef behind Nairns Cook School in Stirling, Scotland (01877 385603, nairnscookschool.com).
Favourite restaurant
I like the Rock Pool (rockpool.com.au), a slightly off-the-wall Sydney institution that delivers Pacific Rim fusion cuisine - which I think only works when done in that part of the world. Australia has a genuine multi-cultural cooking tradition and understands how to use local ingredients. Fusion becomes confusion cooking elsewhere.
Favourite bar
I do most of my pub drinking in London and like The Cow at Westbourne Grove (020- 7221 0021). It's a real local, with a guy cooking proper pub grub on show. In Glasgow, I love the Stravaigin on Gibson Street (0141-334 2665). Its name means "roaming" in Gaelic. There's a restaurant there too, but I think the pub food is better.
Favourite hotel
The Il San Pietro de Positano in Italy where we enjoyed a fabulous honeymoon. It's slightly eccentric, and although the food isn't the best Italian you will ever eat, it's still pretty good. You eat outside on a terrace that has one of the world's great views, and pick your own Amalfi lemon for your gin and tonic. I've stayed in swankier hotels, but nothing has come close.
· Il San Pietro (ilsanpietro.it. Doubles from €360 (£240), room only.
Matthew Fort
Food & drink editor, The Guardian.
Favourite restaurant
It depends on the mood, but among them must feature La Bandiera, Civitella Casanova in Pescara, southern Italy. Also Contrada Pastini (32, angolo viale della Vittoria Fratelli Corsi) in Rome. Le Moulin de Lourmarin, in France. And the incomparable Fat Duck in Bray, Berks.
Favourite Bar
Scaturchio in Naples is not a bar in the Met Bar sense of the word, although it will do drinks and cocktails, but it should be a pilgrimage for anyone who wants to eat sublime pastries, drink the finest coffee and watch the incomparable soap opera of the Neapolitan streets.
Favourite Hotel
I rarely stay in hotels. A widely dispersed family means that I usually sponge off them when visiting foreign or even native parts. However, there is little to beat the civilised comforts and grand grub of Hambleton Hall, Upper Hambleton, Rutland (01572 756991) or Gidleigh Park, Chagford, Devon (01647 432367). A few days is balm to the wounded soul - and body.
Hottest table in town
If you don't happen to know any Michelin-starred chefs, the closest you can get to eating in their home is dining at the chef's table.
Charlie Trotter in Chicago claims to have been the first to come up with the concept of allowing diners into the kitchen to see what's going on (and former executive chef, Serge Dansereau, at the Four Seasons in Sydney is another early pioneer). But whoever devised it, it's been taken on by some of the best chefs around the world.
For the diner, it's the chance to take a seat at the hottest table in town -literally. The first thing that strikes most diners is how chefs manage to work in the heat without keeling over.
You need to book at least a month in advance - and more if you want the head chef there.
· Chef's Table at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, Brook Street, W1 (020-7499 0099). Seats between four and six and costs £550 for lunch and £700 for dinner.
· Savoy Grill, Savoy Hotel, Strand, London WC2 (020- 7592 1600). You, and seven others, can watch Marcus Wareing in action for £560.
· Petrus, The Berkeley Hotel, Wilton Place, SW1 (020-7235 1200). Mr Wareing once more, and this time seven people can dine for £680.
· The Chef's Table at MENU, The Connaught, Carlos Place, London W1 (020-7592 1222). Seats six to 10 diners (from £60 per person for lunch and £75 for dinner) and diners discuss a personalised menu with head chef Angela Hartnett.
· Four Seasons Hotel Sydney (fourseasons.com). Evolved through a mistake. When the private dining room was double-booked executive chef, Serge Dansereau came up with the wheeze of moving one of the groups to the 'garde mangier' (cold preparation area) in the kitchen. A five course dinner is A$150 (£62).
· Patina, Los Angeles (patinagroup.com). Situated in the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, where chef Joachim Splichal offers a nine-seater table with a large window overlooking the kitchen. A two-hour, four-course dinner is $85 (£47).
· Charlie Trotter's, Chicago (charlietrotters.com). There are two nightly seatings where a 14-course dinner will set you back $175 (£97).
· Amanda Morison is editor-at-large of Food and Travel magazine.
