Chef-curated salads triple salad bar sales at Minnesota hospital

Chef Molly Lindberg knows that the salad bar is not often considered the hotspot of the hospital cafeteria.

“A salad bar sometimes is kind of an afterthought,” she says. “It's not like this exciting thing to walk up and be like, ‘Oh my goodness, look at this!’”

The salad bar inside the cafeteria at Northfield Hospital in Northfield, Minn., however, has become the star of the show, thanks to Lindberg’s introduction of themed salads that have gotten staff talking and have tripled salad bar sales since they were introduced about a year and a half ago.

Creating the themes

Lindberg has created close to 40 themed salads, and a different one is served each day when the salad bar is open.

“We have a salad bar that can hold like eight components. So, I try and get each one of my salads to have eight components,” she says. “That’s a lot, but it can be done.”

In Lindberg’s Thai peanut salad, for example, those ingredients include edamame, carrots and crispy wontons.

Each salad is also paired with a homemade dressing that uses natural ingredients and isn’t high in fat or sugar. “I use a lot of pureed fruit to go into a dressing to add for the sweetness, or I'll use natural honey,” she says.  

The ingredients often change seasonally. In the winter, Lindberg opts for heartier greens and components that can be served warm. Her warm Italian salad tops spinach with grilled chicken, marinated artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and a balsamic dressing.

The salads sell for $6.50 each; however, the price increases by around $2 dollars when premium proteins like shrimp are used.

Ingredient education

The salad bar is not self-serve and is often manned by Lindberg herself, who uses it as an opportunity to educate guests on the health benefits of the different ingredients.

Since the salads debuted, customers have learned about the benefits of quinoa and freekeh, and have begun to embrace ingredients they were once unfamiliar with.

Lindberg has also heard from many hospital workers that her salads give them the boost they need to better care for patients during shifts.

“That's really the most rewarding part to me is having [hospital staff] come back to me and just say, ‘You're just killing it. You're just doing home runs. I feel so good after lunch, I actually have energy,’” says Lindberg.