Nope. Stephanie Alexander is my favourite and there's no recipe photos in her books. I prefer decent indexing - by ingredients please! - and nice clear sections.

I used to work at a food manufacturer and you wouldn't believe what food stylists do to food for it to be photographed. And none of it is edible! So that puts me off the fancy photos anyway. I know varnish and hair spray are definitely used. And unless they put those ingredients in the list I can't see how my food is going to look the same.

Kinda like what they do to real life models as well. I rest my case.
I watched a documentary on food styling and they used the process of a fast food restaurant commercial for their subject. It was very interesting and I have never ever looked at fast food on ads the same again. Not appetising at all - lots of hairspray, varnish and glue. Gross

I have never thought a lot about it looking at a recipe book though. Maybe that's a good thing ... I might find it all very unappetising