On the flip side of this though, I've seen ads on TV and in print for local restaurants that clearly don't have a budget to have their food professionally photographed, and they look laughably bad in the ads themselves. There is a commercial airing on TV lately for a local Italian joint, and the food photos they used in it look like they were shot with someone's cell phone. They were all shot with the head-on flash, and look very unappetizing. Funny thing is, in person they are actually good dishes - they were just shot very poorly.
Years ago I worked on a web site for a local restaurant and as part of the job, I had to photograph a bunch of their food too. They totally hooked us up and made one of just about everything on their menu, then let us eat it all for free. I had to photograph them first of course, then we could dig in. We brought home a ton of leftovers, lol. It was kind of fun too though, because I was trying to shoot the items during a relatively busy dinner service and I didn't want to disturb the other guests with flashes going off, so I had to shoot them under ambient lighting on a tripod. They came out fantastic though, and were exactly how you would see them if you went out to eat.