Melissa McSorley found herself researching which apple varieties existed in the 1960s, one of many specifics that made “Mad Men” so precise. Susan Spungen became a hand double for Meryl Streep, trussing a duck in “Julie & Julia” as if she were the one portraying the legendary Julia Child. Christine Tobin set off a hotel fire alarm at 4 a.m. while searing pork chops so Frances McDormand could gnaw on the bones in the HBO miniseries “Olive Kitteridge.”

Welcome to the wild world of food stylists.

Pay attention to the food in a movie and you’ll see a hundred niceties working in near-perfect harmony. Someone, or perhaps a few someones, was responsible for each of those decisions.

A profession that was once unique to advertising and magazine photography, the food stylist has become ubiquitous in Hollywood over the past few decades. The job varies from project to project, but it’s always multipronged. Food stylists are…