Tom Cockerill — Food Stylist & Food Photographer for Hire
Food styling · Food photography · Art direction · Advertising · Film & TV · Branded content
A few years ago I wrote a post here introducing my other life away from making photography backdrops at Woodrow Studios.
A lot has happened since, so it feels like time for an update.
I’m Tom Cockerill, a UK food stylist, food photographer and art director, now based near York in North Yorkshire and working throughout the UK and internationally.
My work covers commercial advertising, photography, film, TV and branded content, either joining an existing creative team as a food stylist or taking on a wider brief involving photography, styling and creative direction.
Food stylist by way of a professional kitchen
I came to food styling slightly differently to many people.
Before working behind the camera, I spent nearly 20 years as a professional chef, including time in multi Michelin-starred kitchens in the UK and abroad and running two award-winning restaurants of my own.
That experience still informs pretty much everything I do.
Understanding how food behaves, how it cooks and how to troubleshoot it quickly is obviously useful on set. But equally important is knowing when not to interfere with it.
My approach to styling tends towards natural, believable food: making something look its absolute best while retaining the qualities that make you actually want to eat it.
Although, when the brief demands it, I'm equally happy reaching for tweezers, syringes, fake ice, fake ice cream and the rest of the stylist's box of tricks.
Commercial food styling
I work alongside photographers, directors, agencies and production companies creating food for advertising campaigns, TV commercials, film, digital content, editorial-style photography and social campaigns.
Sometimes I'm handed a beautifully detailed treatment and asked to make it happen.
Sometimes the brief is considerably more fluid and I'm involved from the early creative stages, helping work out how an idea can actually be achieved in front of the camera.
Both are fun.
I've worked on everything from individual hero dishes and drinks to large-scale dining scenes for film & TV, recipe campaigns, product launches and complicated sequences for motion involving pneumatic robots, probe lenses and obscenely high frame rates!
Food & drink photography
Over the years I've increasingly found myself on the other side of the camera too.
As a commercial food photographer, I shoot food and drink for advertising, brand campaigns, packaging, websites, social content and print.
Being both photographer and stylist can be particularly useful for smaller productions and content shoots. Rather than separating the photography, styling and food knowledge between several people, I can take a project from initial idea and recipe development through to the finished image.
For larger advertising productions, I'm equally happy concentrating solely on food styling and collaborating with another photographer and creative team.
Stills and motion
One of the things I particularly enjoy about my work is its variety.
I've styled food for stills photography, TV advertising, online films and drama productions, working with photographers, directors, videographers, producers and art departments.
Motion brings its own peculiar challenges.
Food has to do things on cue. Sauces need to pour properly. Cheese needs to stretch. Steam needs to appear at the right moment. A dish may need to survive multiple takes while looking as though it has just left the kitchen.
My chef background is particularly useful here because solving those problems often starts with understanding the food rather than disguising it.
An editorial eye, with commercial experience
My natural visual style has always leaned towards editorial, atmospheric and believable food imagery, but I've spent years working within the very different demands of commercial advertising.
That means understanding that a beautiful image also has a job to do.
The product needs to read. Brand cues matter. Negative space might be required for copy. A sequence has to work across several formats. And sometimes the precise orientation of a sesame seed matters considerably more than anybody outside an advertising shoot could reasonably imagine.
It's the combination I enjoy: bringing an editorial sensibility to my photography that still has to perform commercially.
Photography work for Le Creuset/John Lewis
Woodrow Studios
My photography work also inadvertently led to another business.
I founded Woodrow Studios after struggling to find the sort of textured surfaces I wanted to use in food photography. What began with a few hand-painted boards developed into a collection of photography surfaces and backdrops used by photographers, stylists, agencies and brands around the world.
Having the collection at my disposal also means I can draw on a substantial library of surfaces when I'm styling or photographing a project.
Yorkshire Location House
More recently, my wife Sam and I have developed the Yorkshire Location House, our Grade II listed home near York, as a shoot location.
We're both from production backgrounds, so we've approached the house from the perspective of the people actually using it.
Alongside the interiors and gardens, productions can have access to my Woodrow backdrop collection, props and my food styling and photography services, making it particularly useful for food, drink, lifestyle and home shoots. In 2026, as well as simply letting the house out, we've started putting together more of our own in house video productions for brands and agencies too - you can see a little more about what we do here
One person, quite a few hats
So, what exactly do I do?
Probably the simplest answer is:
I'm a Food Stylist. Food Photographer. Art Director. Chef.
You can book me purely as a food stylist to work alongside your photographer or director.
You can commission me to photograph and style a campaign.
I can develop recipes and create the accompanying imagery.
I can help work through the practicalities of an ambitious food idea before a shoot.
And, when useful, I can bring the location, props and photography surfaces into the equation too.
The common thread through all of it is food, imagery and solving creative problems.
Available for projects in the UK and internationally
I'm based near York in North Yorkshire, working regularly across Yorkshire, Leeds, Manchester, London and throughout the UK, as well as travelling internationally for productions.
If you're a photographer, producer, agency, production company or brand looking for an experienced food stylist, food photographer or food creative, I'd love to hear what you're working on.
Tom Cockerill
Food Stylist · Food Photographer · Art Director
Yorkshire, UK · Available throughout the UK & internationally