I just finished a 4-day fun (and sweat) filled photo workshop. I'm glad to share that I won our food photo contest out of 25 entries! I was not very impressed with my own work though but nevertheless I got the prized medal. Winning shot below with no editing - only cropping was allowed:

Since only one entry was allowed per participant, I was contemplating between the pasta shot above and the pasta carbonara below. On deeper thought, even though I got better lighting on the carbonara, this snap would never pass a trained chef because of the styling (fyi, I didn't do the plating!). The plate used was just oh so wrong! The colors are suited for Spanish or LatAm dishes and not Italian pasta. Be careful of what plating you use because it can make or break your overall shot.