Editing food shots is not as rigorous as fashion snaps. I just learned the secret of magazine layout artists. To get that heavenly, flawless face, use the gaussian blur technique on the face and to reduce the bluriness it creates on the eye area, use the eraser tool with an opacity of less than 50%. Try it! It works! You don't have to patch every single imperfection on your model's face. You can create a magazine glossy worthy photo in an instant :)

For food, I avoid photoshopping unless really necessary. Sometimes, playing around with the curves and levels destroy the texture and create an unrealistic color of foods, especially your greens- salads, vegetables, etc. Graphic design skills though do come in handy if you are doing product shoots (think a juice, a bottle, a bar of chocolates...). One of my favorite techniques is to utilize a center or 2 pm spotlight render on a plain background to give pizzazz to the photo. Example below on the Kahlua. I opted for no shadow or reflection for this shot.