Jackie Baldwin, a vibrant personality and talented chef who was one of the few women to hold top posts in area restaurant kitchens, died Friday, according to a colleague and others who were close to her.

She was in her early 50s and lived in Troy, where she had been executive chef of RPI for 13 years before moving up to a regional supervisory post for the food-service giant Sodexo. A close friend said Baldwin was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in January.

“She was a true professional dedicated to the love of her craft,” said Jaime Ortiz, partner and general manager of Angelo’s 677 Prime in Albany, who worked with Baldwin on a variety of cooking events over the years.

“The world has lost a very talented chef and a tremendous person,” said Tim MacTurk, a district manager for Sodexo.

A native of Troy, Baldwin graduated from Russell Sage College and started in restaurant kitchens 33 years ago, when women were even more of a rarity than they are now, especially at the top. While she enjoyed her time in restaurants, and regularly helped out in friends’ restaurants, she came to prefer institutional food service.

“It’s the best job I ever had,” she once said of her post at RPI, a Sodexo client. “I have all of the days off that you would normally be working in a restaurant.”

The multiple food-service options at the college also provided significant culinary and management challenges on which she thrived. In addition to four dining halls, Baldwin’s operation encompassed cafes, the student union, a rathskellar and coffeehouse. She further pushed her staff with a catering wing that did events for both private clients and the college, including a commencement-weekend barbecue for 10,000 guests. On an average week at RPI, food operations she oversaw provided 34,000 meals.

More recently Baldwin was area executive chef for Sodexo and supervised food service at 32 college and university campuses in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

“Not only did she know her stuff, she was eager to share her knowledge, experience and talent,” said Donna Purnomo, who, with her chef-husband, Yono, met Baldwin decades ago through the area chapter of the American Culinary Federation. Purnomo said, “When she signed on for a (cooking) demo or was helping to organize culinary events or teaching a class, you never worried. She’d think of everything and follow through.”

“(She was) not only a truly talented chef but one of the nicest friends that you can ever have,” said the chef Larry Schepici, who previously ran restaurants in Troy and is now at Jack’s Oyster House in Albany. Schepici cooked at charity events with Baldwin, including at the James Beard House in New York City, and with Baldwin was part of the quartet of chefs who ran the rotating Chefs 4×4 dinners at area restaurants.

Baldwin also strongly believed in food education. In summer 2014, she was among the chefs who cooked for Uptown Summer 2014 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in North Troy, where she provided lunch and nutritional knowledge to the Rensselaer County Summer Youth Employment Program. A video of her chatting with teen participants is here.

A few years back, after yet another 34,000-meal week at RPI, Baldwin didn’t spend her Friday night at home: She was in a friend’s restaurant kitchen, helping out a fellow chef who needed another set of skilled hands to feed customers.

“I love everything about food and cooking,” said Baldwin. “I can’t get enough of it.”

It was Baldwin’s wish that there be no formal funeral or memorial. Friends say Baldwin would have appreciated knowing people held dinner parties and tried new dishes in her honor, and that they worked actively on behalf of causes she cared about, including children, the elderly and animals.