Despite its importance, moderated mediation analysis of destination food image is understudied in food tourism literature. By applying the stimulus-organism-response framework, the objectives of this study are firstly, to investigate the cognitive food image-intention relationship. Secondly, it will examine how tourists’ desire to try local food is affected by cognitive image of destination food. Thirdly, desire-intention relationship will be investigated. Fourthly, the mediating effect of tourists’ desire to try local food on the cognitive image-intention relationship will be examined. Fifthly, the moderating effect of tourists’ perceived difficulty of finding local food on the desire-intention relationship will be discussed. Lastly, gender as a moderator on the cognitive image-desire relationship will be examined. This research is based on an online survey of 449 Chinese tourists who have visited Macau. Our findings show that tourists’ desire to try destination food mediates the relationship between food image and tourists’ intention to eat destination cuisine. The mediation effect is more salient for low level of tourists’ perceived difficulty of finding destination cuisine. However, gender as a moderator of the image-desire is not significant. The study provides insight to destination management organizations and foodservice businesses on the use of local cuisine in destination promotion.