She gets things cooking as director of Sizzler's menu.

FOOD is a passion for Audrey Baldwin. So her new position as senior director of menu development and product innovation for Sizzler Restaurants is a perfect fit: She'll he creating new items for the fast casual chain's menu.

Baldwin started in the food industry about 20 years ago as a prep cook for a large catering company in Orange County. Eventually, she worked her way up through the kitchen to the position of head chef.

"I learned that being an executive chef is not conducive to having real life," she said. "The hours are so long."

So she began to explore other options. She went back to school at California State University, Long Beach and received a bachelor's degree in dietetics and food administration. "I wanted to stay with food but I was also thinking about nutrition," she said.

Baldwin got a job with a food research company that worked on a contractual basis making food items for major companies such as Taco Bell and Jenny Craig, as well as for smaller operations, including an entrepreneur who was trying to re-create a barbecue sauce that his mother used to make.

Most recently, Baldwin taught cultural foods as an adjunct professor at Orange Coast College where she once received an associates degree. At the same time she worked for CKE Restaurants Inc., parent company to Hardee's and Carl's Junior. There, she created items for the menu like the Spicy Six Dollar Burger and the Steak and Egg Burrito.

In her new post, Baldwin spends a significant amount of time in Sizzler's test kitchen at the chain's headquarters in Culver City. She perfects the flavor of new items, and decides what food products vendors can produce consistently. She also has to calculate food costs.

Not all menu items work out. "Sometimes, there is a product that I might think is the next big thing in the world, but you take it to the customer or the vendor and they say, 'What were you thinking?'"

Some products don't work because sales for the item are just too low. In order to minimize menu failures, part of Baldwin's job is to follow business trends. She takes direction from the marketing department and conducts online surveys regarding what customers are interested in. She also visits Sizzler restaurants to see how dishes are being made at the retail level.

Baldwin lives with her husband and her son in Ventura. For leisure, she likes walking on the beach and watching her son surf. Even after a day in the kitchen at work, she still enjoys coming home to cook for her family. Or she takes them to Sizzler to try the new menu items.