How do food photographers capture the perfect bite?

More than four hours of meticulous planning went into creating this delicious award-winning picture by the masterful food photographer Ben Cole.

Ben Cole, 41, has specialised in food and beverage photography for 20 years.

We eat first with our eyes, the old saying goes. Looking at this image by food photographer Ben Cole, perhaps you’d agree. Aren’t you already imagining how the sweet figs and honey will play off the salty, savoury punch of the blue cheese and prosciutto? Aren’t you imagining all those sensuous textures, framed by the crunch of the cracker?

Cole, 41, has specialised in food and beverage photography for 20 years, working out of a studio in Sydney’s Artarmon, so exploiting this nexus ­between our eyes and our appetite is all in a day’s work for him. He shoots everything from high-end restaurant fare to supermarket goods and special releases by the gelato brand Gelatissimo. (His latest job? Creating publicity images for the launch of a new ­Arnott’s biscuit; he won’t say what it is.)

You might be surprised to learn how much effort went into this image, which took out a gong in the World Food Photography Awards. Cole and food stylist Sharon Kennedy spent four hours in the studio creating it. First, they perfected the composition and dialled in the lighting using ­stand-in figs, cheese and ham. (Why? “Food just dies on set if it sits out too long,” Cole explains.) They employed four ­studio lights, plus a handful of diffusers and a mirror to soften and manipulate the light. Only when everything was set up did they ­replace the stand-ins with the stars, add the dynamic ­element of the dripping honey, and click, voilà!

Cole wearies of people who assume that food photography is largely about artifice (“I never use paint,” he sighs) but he does have some tricks: ­Perspex plinths and invisible wires were used to support the food elements in this image, and he’ll often spritz his photographic subjects with oil to ­glisten them up, or add a puff of artificial steam with a special device. The key thing, though, is to use the finest, best-looking ingredients, he says.

Perhaps you’ll look at all the food images in this special issue of the magazine and feel that nexus, that primal connection, between your eyes and your stomach. You’ll know, if you turn over each page and your brain goes num-num-num-num-num.