A cookbook author and professional recipe developer can stand the heat.

If you’ve flipped through colorful food photographs or tried out an interesting new recipe you found in a magazine, you’ve probably come across Caroline Chambers’ work. The Carmel resident is a professional recipe developer and food stylist. She also has published a cookbook – Just Married – with recipes scaled for two people.

Weekly: Just how does one become a recipe developer?

Chambers: Growing up, my mom was an incredible cook. I learned how to cook from her – how to improvise and be confident in the kitchen. I wound up founding a catering company [in San Diego] and that opened my eyes to the food media world. Local magazines started calling and I started doing a lot of food styling.

Ever have failures?

Today I’m developing a gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free – everything-free – brownie for a brand. My first batch was truly inedible.

What inspired the cookbook?

When we moved to Palo Alto I took a food development job in San Francisco. The first weekend I got home at 8:30pm and my husband said, “What’s for dinner?” I was like, “No, no, no.” But he had zero skills in the kitchen. I wrote to get couples in the kitchen together.

Do you get tired of cooking?

Every now and then my husband will come home and I’ll say, “We’re going out for dinner.” But I genuinely love my job. It’s so different every day. Yesterday I was doing a sweet potato nacho recipe, today it’s brownies.

Are you hard to cook for?

No. I’m so glad you asked that. People never want to have me over for dinner, but I’m not a picky eater. So have me over; the nicest gift you can give someone is to cook them a meal.