Antonino Cannavacciuolo stroking a mermaid on a bed of ice and Albert Adrià balancing on a tightrope – just two of the images from this year's stunning Lavazza 2014 Inspiring Chefs calendar. The coffee giant is known for producing calendars packed with stunning and unconventional imagery, and this year's is no different. Shot by world-class portrait photographer Martin Schoeller, it realises the chefs' unique ways of looking at food with surreal and inventive portraits.

"These chefs are not only pioneers of the new direction in taste, they are first and foremost our friends. What we wanted to do was put them at the centre of our world, which as always is playful, fun and slightly surreal. With Martin and the Armando Testa Agency, we imagined them as jugglers, immersed in bubbles of thought. Or as philosophers of nature, searching for the essence of life and their discovery of their origins … whether they be the white canvas of a grain of rice, books about our past, or the sea, the source of all life."

– Francesco Lavazza, Corporate Image Director, Lavazza

For more information on the images, visit lavazza.com.