Autumn ushers in a new season of sports mania, with fans seeking to congregate together to cheer, celebrate or commiserate over the performance of favorite teams and players. How can you improve the odds that they’ll bring their high-spirited selves to your restaurant in the weeks leading up to the championship game?

Of course, it takes comprehensive customer research to determine the particular formula of menu, atmosphere, service and price that will successfully drive that traffic. Still, it’s a safe bet that distinctive menu offerings that separate you from the competition are a key element in any winning strategy.

Your game plan certainly doesn’t require a complete menu makeover! Instead, focus your efforts on giving a glow-up to appetizers, shareables and snacks that are reliably popular, but may need a refresh that reflects evolving trends and tastes. With Mexican menu items continuing to find favor across a broad range of restaurant concepts, queso is a good place to start.

It’s extraordinarily easy to create and execute distinctive queso recipes, especially when you take a speed-scratch approach and turn to the portfolio of ready-to-use cheesy sauces and dips from Land O’Lakes, including Extra Melt^® Cheese Sauce and Queso Bravo^® Cheese Dip; both products are available in white and yellow varieties. Quality meets convenience in these time-savers that provide consistent performance without requiring a highly skilled kitchen team.

Start with a New View

To begin, consider how you use and market queso on your menu—or why you aren’t offering it at all. If you position queso simply as a cheese sauce for chips, your customers will take a similarly ho-hum view. Play up the distinctive identities between queso and cheese sauce, urges Jim Churches, CEC, CCA, AAC, Senior Corporate Executive Chef, Land O’ Lakes Foodservice. “When the word ‘queso’ is brought into the conversation, the first thing that pops into my mind is ‘upscale,’ ‘ special’ or ‘better than.’ To me, the term ‘cheese sauce’ is blah and usually non-descriptive. Today, queso is popping up in more menu mentions in inventive ways that are not at all associated with chips,” he says. As an example, Churches cites ancho-rubbed grilled carrots with drizzled queso and lime crema. “Now that is next-level and certainly a departure from ‘chips and queso.’”

Getting to an elevated queso application begins and ends with flavor play. “Looking at the flavor spectrum, the right inclusions can make your queso sweet and fruity, spicy and bold—and everything in between,” says Churches, sharing several examples, from adding a local IPA that will “jump out on the menu” to seasonal ingredients that combine for a robust topper on a center-of-the-plate protein.

He reminisces about a chef’s summit he attended where American Culinary Federation President Chef Rene Marquis garnered buzz for a whole-grain mustard queso perfectly suited as a dipping sauce for hot-out-of-the-oven pretzels. Churches also muses on a lemon and garlic queso to use as a dip for lobster or other seafood , as well as a red curry coconut queso dip with flatbread. While not necessarily “game day” offerings, these ideas demonstrate the breadth of opportunity for elevating queso on the menu.

Queso even works in dessert options. “I recently made a sweet blueberry queso that was served hot over ice cream and a warm red, white and blue cookie,” reveals Churches. One secret to his own queso success? “When you add sugar to our Extra Melt^® Cheese Sauce, it takes on a cheesecake-like flavor that goes so well with many items.”

Use queso as a means of tapping into the global flavor systems that are commanding attention, from al pastor to curry.

EASY EXPLORATIONS

If you fear a riot might ensue if you change up your customers’ favorite dips too drastically or remove them from the menu in favor of other applications, you can dial up the flavor of a simple cheese sauce with just a few ingredient additions. Take, for example the Queso Fundido and Chorizo, which features ground chorizo, onions, garlic, seeded jalapeños, cayenne and shredded Monterey Jack added to Extra Melt^® White Cheese Sauce. Kick it up further with garnishes, such as diced tomato and/or avocado, fresh cilantro, chopped green onions and radish and/or pickled jalapeño slices.

Ground chorizo is also a key inclusion in a Chorizo and Chipotle Craft Beer Queso, which starts with a base of Extra Melt^® Yellow or White Cheese Sauce. (Both sauces have the same flavor, but bring a different visual aesthetic to the table, says Churches.) In addition to the chorizo, other ingredients added to the mix are onions, cilantro, canned chipotle peppers in adobo and beer. “Having chorizo in the dip lends some texture and color to the queso, along with amazing flavor,” says Churches. He recommends chefs experiment with different beers to find the desired flavor, cooking it down a bit first to develop further dimension.

Or begin with a base with more robust flavor built in. Queso Bravo^® Cheese Dip is a great foundation for leveraging distinctive global flavor systems , such as an Al Pastor Queso. Here, the yellow version of the Queso Bravo^® Cheese Dip is mixed with cooked pulled chicken or pork, crushed pineapple and achiote y cilantro seasoning. “Adding proteins is always a good idea for queso,” says Churches. “Thinking out a flavor profile like al pastor makes sense and gives you a different way to serve the queso. It would also work for other Mexican flavor systems like barbacoa and chicken tinga, and other global cuisines. A gojuchang chicken queso served over fried wontons would be amazing!”

Score bonus points by using your popular queso dip as a drizzle or topping for other menu items. Cross-utilization for the win!

MULTIPLE MENU MOVES

Any queso dip recipe can be cross-utilized as a drizzle or a topping for other dishes, making it a valued utility player on the menu team. A platter of nachos is an iconic application, but a queso can be a winning feature on loaded french fries and loaded mashed potatoes, grilled veggies on a tostada shell, a baked potato, scrambled eggs and much more. “To add a queso drizzle over something makes my heart happy,” says Churches, with enthusiasm. “It adds a flavor and texture boost to anything it tops.”

Churches keeps the inventive suggestions coming: “I really like putting queso on things that aren’t expected. For example, a Southwest eggs benedict with two drizzles: green chile hollandaise and a beautiful white queso. I also like to take two flavored quesos that are complementary in flavor and color and drizzle both over loaded fries or nachos. Or dress up an old-school foot-long coney dog with a drizzle of queso and thinly sliced green onions to make it next-level.”

MANY WAYS TO QUESO

In addition to Extra Melt^® Cheese Sauces and Queso Bravo^® Cheese Dips, chefs may also want to utilize loaf and shredded cheese products from the Land O Lakes^® Performance Dairy portfolio. This includes Extra Melt^® Shredded American Cheese (which comes in three varieties: white and yellow and sharp yellow). “Making queso from shreds or loaf products provides flexibility to melt the cheese alongside other ingredients, such as heavy cream, vegetable juice or salsa, rather than mixing them in later,” says Churches.

Still, pouches offer the greatest ease and efficiency, with the fewest steps and the least time. The pouched sauces and dips can be heated right in the bag using steam or boiling water. Click here to access “Three Ways to Queso” and compare the steps and tools required for each of the options.

No matter the form they choose, your kitchen team will find cheese products from Land O’Lakes products easy to use, boasting impressive performance. “Our products can take multiple heat/chill cycles, which is important to managing food costs,” notes Churches. “Plus, you can add fats and acids to the queso and it won’t break, oil off or scorch!” Chefs can count on consistent results every time, scoring those all-important victories in the kitchen and on the plate.

Discover the advantages of Land O Lakes^® Performance Dairy products. Click here to obtain free samples and here to discuss your needs with a sales representative.