For the eighth straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com, presented by Locavore, the newest restaurant at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as the winners of our "Best of Dining 2014."

Paddock Club chef and co-owner Lynn Chisholm has a resume as long as your arm, having worked in a number of well-known Milwaukee restaurants before diving in to open her own place in Elkhart Lake.

She opened Paddock Club with her family, which makes perfect sense, because Chisholm comes from a restaurant family in Plymouth, where her grandparents ran Chissy's Pub for three decades.

As the summer season winds down in Elkhart Lake, Chisholm is prepping for an appearance at Kohler Food and Wine Experience, Oct. 23-26, at The American Club.

We caught up with her to ask her about her background, opening and running her own restaurant and some of her favorite things...

OnMilwaukee.com: Tell us a bit about yourself. I hear you come from a restaurant family.

Lynn Chisholm: My family is from Plymouth. My dad’s parents were in the tavern business and ran Chissy’s Pub for 30 years, my grandma in the kitchen and my grandpa running the bar. My grandpa Harry was a pioneer of his time when it came to mixology. Many people say that he was responsible for inventing the Brandy Old Fashioned "Sweet" in 1947 and of course our family supports that theory.

He used to send my dad to pick up perfect 1½-inch ice cubes from a small company that made them in Sheboygan on a weekly basis. He muddled his old fashioned with love and did a little dance according to my mom. What I would have given to see that. They sold Chissy’s the year I was born, as I am the youngest of four.

My mom grew up on a farm in Johnsonville and I have so many amazing memories from harvest time there. I remember picking strawberries and making jam with my grandma and falling out of the apple/pear tree that my grandfather grafted so it grew apples on one side and pears on the other. She always said the only thing they went to the store for growing up was coffee and sugar and everything else came from the farm. I always thought that was really incredible.

OMC: What sort of experience did you have before you arrived at the Paddock Club? You worked at some of the Bartolotta Restaurants, didn't you?

LC: My first experience in the restaurant business was at The Velvet Room which was where I met Chef Patrick O’Halloran. I spent a year at the Velvet Room and then Patrick introduced me to his mentor Scott Shully. I then went to work at Shully’s Catering for next three years while going through the culinary apprenticeship program at MATC. After that I moved to Madison to help Patrick and Marcia O’Halloran open Lombardino’s Italian restaurant where I spent the next three years. They were kind enough to allow me to take six weeks off to go to the French Culinary Institute in New York to take the Art of International Bread Baking course. Baking bread has always been a passion of mine.

After coming back home with the itch to do something new, I was hired by the Bartolotta’s to be their executive catering chef heading up their off site catering company. I spent the next five years working for the Bartolotta’s at Lake Park Bistro, Ristorante Bartolotta on Downer and Bacchus. They were incredible to work for and really taught me a great deal about the business.

OMC: For folks in Milwaukee, who don't know, can you give us a bit of the Paddock Club story?

LC: I always had the dream of opening my own restaurant. So after five years of working for the Bartolotta’s I felt I was ready. I wrote a business plan and started looking at spaces around Milwaukee. One day my dad called me up and told me that the Village Green was for sale in Elkhart Lake. I think I laughed at first … the thought of moving home was pretty crazy. My three siblings and I decided to look at the space together and we were all completely charmed by Elkhart Lake and the 100-year-old cream city brick building in dire need of a makeover. We ended up purchasing the property together. My brother Scott managed the renovation and helped design it with me, my sister Kim helped with the business and marketing development and my sister Cheri took the front of the house while I took the back. My oldest sister Cheri and I have run the business together since the beginning and I am super lucky to have her for a partner.

OMC: Was Elkhart Lake already something of a destination for fine dining when you arrived or has your work at the Paddock Club helped build that reputation?

LC: Elkhart Lake is lucky to have several great restaurants, which made it that much more appealing to come here. When I first opened the restaurant I was still figuring out what my cooking style was and was energized by the locals and visitors who needless to say are total foodies.

OMC: Do you have to take a different approach in a small resort town like Elkhart Lake than you would in Milwaukee? Are the expectations different?

LC: I think my cooking would be very similar if I was in a larger city with maybe the only difference being that my farmers would come from a little bit further distance away. Elkhart Lake is a truly unique place and draws visitors from around the world who love to experience great food and the locals are very adventurous, as well.

OMC: Do you have a signature dish?

LC: It is very hard to pick one dish that defines you – if you ask our regulars I believe you would get some specific answers. One of my favorite dishes is a jalapeno lime braised pork shoulder with roasted fingerlings, green beans, pickled red onion, watercress and bacon poblano vinaigrette. We brine the pork with fresh jalapeno and lime, butterfly it and rub it with fresh oregano, garlic and jalapenos. We then roll it up and tie it. Allow it to set overnight and braise it the next day. The bacon poblano vinaigrette has nice warmth from the poblano chiles and a kiss of acidity from the red wine vinegar. Yum, the thought of it is making me want to put it back on the menu.

OMC: What do you like most, and least, about your job?

LC: I really love brainstorming with my cooks weekly when we write our Tuesday small plate menu. I like to give them creative freedom and allow them to really explore what they want to create that week. It is really fun to see them come into their own style.

My least favorite would be inventory or anything in an Excel spreadsheet. I think this needs no explanation.

OMC: Now that you're here are you planning to overhaul the menu or will you take more of a wait and see approach?

LC: I am guilty of changing the menu quite often -- or some people might say all the time. With such a short season here in Wisconsin I make small changes monthly so I can highlight what I am getting from my farmers. We make larger changes each season to the menu and love to switch up our cocktails as well.

OMC: Do you have any favorite places yet to eat out in Milwaukee?

LC: I really like Wolf Peach and Goodkind, and can’t wait to check out a lot of the newer places that just opened up.

OMC: Do you have a favorite cookbook?

LC: Hmm, not one in particular. There are so many fantastic books out there these days. A couple that I am reading now are SPQR and Le Pigeon, both are amazing.

OMC: Do you have a favorite TV or celebrity chef?

LC: I really like the show "Mind of a Chef" that feature various chefs season to season.

OMC: What's been the biggest development in the culinary arts over the past 10 years?

LC: Wow, so much has gone on. In some ways I think there is a movement towards back to basics, looking at the purity of ingredients, where they come from and really drawing out the flavor. I love to see dishes that have three ingredients or less blow your mind. I was in Copenhagen earlier this year and can say that I experienced this at quite a few restaurants.

OMC: What kitchen utensil can't you live without?

LC: A sharp knife.

OMC: What's the next big trend in food?

LC: Locally sourced and minimalistic – using fewer ingredients in a dish and really allowing them to shine and getting many of the ingredients you use locally. It’s taken off already but I see it really continuing to grow.

OMC: What's the toughest day / night to work in the restaurant biz?

LC: Brunch. I can’t say busy nights because to me they are the most fun.

OMC: What is your favorite guilty dining pleasure?

LC: I definitely have a weakness for Kopp’s cheeseburgers and pastor tacos on a corn tortilla, which I get at a number of places in Milwaukee.