Carmen Borsdorf is an old-school chef’s chef. The in-house corporate chef at Performance Foodservice-La Crosse in Wisconsin just can’t stop cooking — no matter what.

“Not everyone knows what they want to do when they grow up. I wanted to be a chef; and I don’t take that for granted,” she said. “I go home after work and cook. People ask me that,” she said, with a big smile. “I’m like, yes I do. I can’t stop.”

That was especially true when she got her first chef job at 24. “I found out I was pregnant and got the job, in the same day! That’s kind of how it works in this business, I think, sometimes. They were like, we’ve got some news — and I said, me too! (Laughs) And then I just kept cooking.”

We sat down with Chef Carmen to chat dinner service and how to adjust to seasonal changes, like the move from summer brightness into the comfort of fall.

Q: How should a restaurant tend to approach dinner seasonality?

I think the most important thing is to get ahead of it. Don’t start too late in the game. And then of course, you’re going to start leaning into adding more of those root vegetables [heading from summer into fall, for instance] on your menu and then heavier comfort items.

It’s so important to call out your menu changes too or maybe add a secondary menu to the tabletop, introducing guests to new specials. Honestly, I think just adding 3 seasonal changes is kind of the sweet spot. I wouldn’t go too much more than that — and then you can tweak it; but keep it simple.

It’s harder to execute if you have more than that. You’re likely to have more waste and costs could start to go up.

Then it’s about your team, getting the back-of-house and front-of-house on the same page. How do they feel about the changes — you know, is prep going smoothly? Are they trained up on selling points for guests?

Q: If you have a dinner item that performs well — but maybe it fits one particular season — does it make sense to extend it?

Absolutely! You could take a big seller off your summer menu, for example, and turn it into an LTO [limited-time offering] for fall. Let guests know on social media, hey this is leaving soon, and it’s super popular. Hype it up and see how they respond.

Q: What are some dinner ingredients you’ve been playing around with?

What always pops up for me is pork, because it’s cost effective. And there are great products out there, like Allegiance^® Pork. It’s amazing! The key is you don’t have to overcook your pork. It’s delicious if you cook it at 145°F. You don’t necessarily have to crisp it up, but it’s super versatile — just like chicken. I like to put a nice pork shank on my fall/winter menus.

In general, I like playing around with the sous vide when it comes to protein; getting that meat that just falls off the bone.

Performance always does well bringing in carrots with green tops, parsnips. Peak Fresh Produce^® has so many good farmer’s market-caliber items. Sweet corn starts to come into season in August; I like to make a sweet corn puree. You can do some different dinner chowders with that.

Q: What are restaurants doing to attract some of the younger crowd for dinner service?

There’s so much fusion going on! They’re having fun layering international flavors [Latin, Asian, Mediterranean] on smash burgers. They’ll take a Heritage Ovens^® Hoagie Bun and fill it with really tasty Roma^® Pasta for like a grab-and-go, street food item. There are a ton of specials going on here in La Crosse with dirty sodas or Latin and Hispanic-inspired beverages.

Q: How should restaurants approach labor as the seasons change?

To get employees to commit for longer, they should consider increasing benefits/pay if someone is willing to stay for a certain amount of time. And maybe that’s something you negotiate right at the get-go with fall/winter staff. I kept a crew that stayed with me for 10 years, because I treated them well. That’s hard to come by in a kitchen.

I was always teaching them; that’s one reason we switched up our menu seasonally. Restaurant workers want to be excited about cooking. So, investing in people will help you save on costs in the long run.

Keeping that community, that family relationship within your space, really benefits your brand, ultimately.