John Scardapane, founder, chairman and CEO of Saladworks, opened the first store at the Cherry Hill Mall in 1986. Today, the salad franchise is national, with new stores opening soon in states from California to Tennessee.
We recently caught up with the Cherry Hill resident while he was traveling on business.
Question: How have salads changed since you opened the first Saladworks way back when?
Answer: When I started Saladworks, it was all about proteins: meats, cheese. It was all about a real satisfying, healthy, hearty salad. As we've grown over the last 23 years, we've seen people are more interested now -- because they're more knowledgeable about nutrition -- about what they put in salad. The protein has changed from meats to beans, edamame and items we never thought would move in a salad are now very popular.
I think it really started when the states started to put these calorie counters, and the posting of the calories and the posting of the fats and salts and nutritional values. That's changed people's attitude a little bit, about not only what they like to eat, but what they're putting in their bodies.
Q: I imagine the calorie count has gone down in your salads?
A: Absolutely. About two years ago, we started to do heavy research and development into what the nutritional balance was in our salads. Right now, all of our salads, if you add them up together, all average under 300 calories, which is tremendous . . . It took us two years because we kept testing it. We wanted to see if the customer was aware and nobody noticed the change.
Q: What was the average calorie count before you made the changes?
A: It was up around 460 (calories). It didn't need to be. Then we attacked our soups and dressings. All our dressings are half the fat and half the calories -- even the creamy ones -- of the traditional dressings that you see in the supermarket. I worked on that personally for a long time.
