As children, the only way to slide tomatoes onto any average gummy-munching and butter-pasta diet was through the grilled cheese vessel. Chef Todd Erickson levels with the child still inside us deconstructing the typical grilled cheese and tomato soup to make a grilled haloumi cheese, grape tomato and buttered brioche skewer with a tomato bisque shooter to dunk in.

If gardens were to have a patron saint, it would have to be Chef Kris Wessel. In his ode to all things wrought from Florida's fields, farms and fincas, his signature Cookery salad makes a spectacle of the sprightly cherry tomatoes. Hot cherry tomatoes bobble atop local goat cheese, cool basil-cucumber salsa and wild arugula.

Sweet, savory, tang and twist meet at Gotham Steak. This steakhouse flips the traditional heirloom tomato on its head, throwing it together with a biting French feta, sweet summer watermelon pearls, and a smoked fish Chinese XO sauce. [Photo courtesy Short Order]

Fried. Bacon. Buttermilk. This country trinity comes together in Whisk's fried green tomato stack. Hot fried green tomatoes prosper beneath a flouring of bacon pieces, shaved parmesan and herb buttermilk dressing. [Photo: Eat, Drink, Enjoy!]

Sourcing close to home to assemble the perfect tomato - burrata salad, Chef Dewey LoSasso teamed Teena's prude tomatoes from Homestead, FL with a creamy burrata and pesto vinaigrette to make a knockout couple you want to be in on. [Photo source: Dewey]

No tomato review can be complete without the quintessential tomato libation. Enter: the Bloody Yardbird, a special Bloody Mary made with house-mixed fresh-pulsed tomato juice, bacon-infused bourbon, pickled okra, and a filthy pepper. [Photo: Droolius]