Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

See all our best Valentine's Day dining advice

Residents of Knoxville, Tennessee, you are lucky this Valentine’s Day. Amazon.com just released a list of the 20 most romantic cities in the country, and you’re number one! Ranked second is Alexandria, Virginia; Springfield, Missouri, is third. This list is based on a mash-up of key signifiers, including sales of romance novels, romantic comedy DVDs and Barry White albums.

If you don’t live in any of those cities, and especially if you’re based in New York City, Paterson, New Jersey, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, or El Monte, California - ranked the country’s least romantic cities - you need to start thinking hard about extreme Valentine’s Day gifts. Here, then, is a sampling of super advanced chocolates that say I love you so, so, so, so much, even if we live in New York and aren’t buying enough Barry White albums.

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Valerie Payne is a media producer at CNN

Food and sex make natural bedfellows, according to C. Nzingha Smith, author of "Lust-Have Recipes: IN-Gredients for Stimulation.” Her cookbook, co-written with caterer Melissa Roberts, is packed with sensual recipes, erotic poetry and sex tips inspired by real-life couples.

According to Smith, "Couples need to find different ways to arouse and turn each other on and translate that into the bedroom." Each recipe in the book contains some type of aphrodisiac ingredient, which she describes as "stimulation thought to arouse sexual excitement."
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5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

Two-time James Beard Award-winning authors Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg know a thing or two about matchmaking. They have been coupled both personally and professionally for the past two decades researching and writing their bestselling books such as The Flavor Bible, What to Drink with What You Eat, Culinary Artistry, and their latest The Food Lover's Guide to Wine.

While they are happy to share a few pairing tips on what underlies great matches, they insist that the real beauty is in experiencing these peak pairings for yourself to see how they work their magic for you and your palate.

And what better time to give a few (or all) of them a try than the days leading up to (or even following) Valentine's Day? After all, it's impossible for aphrodisiacs to do their thing if they're paired with the wrong partner - so there's plenty of motivation to find the right matches for your Valentine's Day repasts.

Here are a few of Karen and Andrew's favorite aphrodisiac food and wine pairings and why they work:
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Candy, flowers and bling may dominate Valentine's Day gifts, but this year, one more item is likely to be among the love offerings: heart-shaped pizzas.

Searches on Google for "heart-shaped pizzas" have soared 230% since January, according to Google's research tool Insights for Search.

And the highest number of searches for heart-shaped pizzas over the past few weeks is coming from Illinois, Texas and California, according to Google.

The novelty pizza has easily been around for decades but lately, pizza sellers - large and small - have been rushing to capitalize on this quirky trend, especially around Valentine's Day.

Read - Heart-shaped pizzas hot for Valentine's Day

Ray Isle (@islewine on Twitter) is Food & Wine's executive wine editor. We trust his every cork pop and decant – and the man can sniff out a bargain to boot. Take it away, Ray.

Ah, Valentine’s Day. If everything goes right, then you have a happy romantic night out with your loved one, and wake the following morning to songbirds chirping, the sun caressing you with buttery light, a suffusion of love in your heart, and no hangover at all. If things go wrong, then you get a night full of misery, anger, disappointment, shame, betrayal, and tears, but what did you expect? That's what dating is all about.

Here’s the deal, though: It didn’t have to be this way. I blame Pope Gelasius I. Back in 496, in a frenzy of popely goody-two-shoes-ness, Gelasius banned the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, when noble youths would run through the city naked, striking people they met with shaggy thongs made of goat-hide, and substituted Valentine’s Day in its place.

Go figure, right? I mean, come on. Which would you rather have, a city full of crazy naked youths running around smacking people with thongs, or a dopey card with a heart on it? Uh-huh. You got that right.

Be that as it may, Lupercalia is gone, Valentine’s Day is here, and no matter what your romantic situation is, you’re undoubtedly going to need a drink. Here are five suggestions to match some possible Valentine’s Day activities.

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If you must waffle on Valentine's Day, don't make it about who you're taking to dinner. The "where" is a lock: Waffle House.

WALB reports that some Waffle Houses across the chain's 15-state span are tossing tablecloths over the formica and chrome, dimming the lights, pouring alcohol-free sparkling drinks and emphasizing menu items like ribeye and eggs, porkchops or T-bones in addition to their perhaps better-known breakfast fare.
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Welcome to round eight of Spouse vs. Spouse, a series in which a couple of married food freaks, CNN’s Brandon and Kristy Griggs, square off in their Atlanta kitchen for culinary bragging rights – and invite you to weigh in too.

In each installment, Kristy and Brandon each make a creative variation on the same ingredient or dish – everything from pasta to seafood to cocktails to desserts. We serve both versions anonymously to our friends, who then judge which one they like better and why. We walk you through our kitchen process, bring the husband-and-wife smack talk and, of course, keep score. We also share our recipes here so that you can try them for yourself.

Our theme: Romantic desserts
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5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

Editor's Note: Jeff Faile is the bar manager of Fiola in Washington, D.C.

Before I was lucky enough to meet my wife and get out of the rat race otherwise known as the dating game, I dreaded Valentine’s Day. I hated being on the other side of the bar while all the happy couples celebrated their love, rubbing my face in it. Each February 14, I’ll admit it, I was bitter.

Looking back on it, there’s nothing wrong with it. To really appreciate finding “the one,” you have to experience the bad. So, let’s be bitter together.

Five Bitter Drinks for Valentine's Day
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Put the "cute" in charcuterie and the sexy in saucisson sec when you bestow a meat bouquet upon your beloved this Valentine's Day. You surely could arrive on your paramour's doorstep with a song in your heart and a hunk of knockwurst in your sweaty mitts, but we suggest you leave it up to the professionals at Portland's famed (yes, that was them on Portlandia) Olympic Provisions.

KPTV reports that for the bargain price of $75 for a three-stem salami bouquet, or $100 for six, the salumeria will dispatch owner Tyler Gaston - the lead singer of local band The Tumblers - to hand-deliver the "Salamigram," along with a smoking hot rendition of his original song, "Love Is Where the Meat Is."
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As Valentine's Day draws near, the romantically inclined among you are officially in full-on scheming mode.

You could partake in a heavy, pricey, prix-fixe meal with one hundred other canoodling strangers at the city's "most romantic" restaurant - or you could go the trés romantique route and woo your beloved the homemade way.

For dessert, might we propose a soufflé?

Jacques Capsouto, owner of soufflé-centric French bistro Capsouto Frères, is here to deflate the myth of soufflés as kitchen catastrophe. All that's required is a little heart, a soupçon of practice time, a foolproof recipe and someone to share it all with.

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