The collaboration comes to life through Lunch Means Business, a campaign that casts Baz as the ultimate lunchtime boss.
Sweetgreen has named cookbook author and food personality Molly Baz its first Chef in Residence, launching a limited-time collaboration that brings three new lunch items featuring Baz’s Ayoh Dill Pickle Mayo to the restaurant chain’s national menu.
The three items — Molly’s Big Dill Caesar Wrap, Molly’s Pickle Caesar Sal and Molly’s Double Chick Scoop — are available at all Sweetgreen restaurants from September 29 through November 9.
The collaboration introduces a dill pickle chicken salad to Sweetgreen for the first time. Developed around Baz’s approach to the Caesar salad, the chicken salad incorporates Dill Pickle Mayo from Ayoh, the condiment brand founded by Baz.
“Molly approaches food with curiosity, conviction and a very clear point of view on what makes something delicious,” said Zipporah Allen, Chief Commercial Officer at Sweetgreen. “Molly is the first of many voices we’ll welcome through our new Chef Residency.”
The residency gives Sweetgreen another format for introducing limited-time menu development through collaborations with outside culinary personalities. For the inaugural edition, Baz worked with the company to develop three variations around the same core chicken salad ingredient.
Molly’s Big Dill Caesar Wrap combines the chicken salad with romaine, fresh dill, Parmesan, pickled red onion, spicy broccoli, garlic breadcrumbs, lemon, Ayoh Dill Pickle Mayo, a pickle spear and Caesar dressing. The ingredients are wrapped in Sweetgreen’s olive oil tortilla.
Molly’s Pickle Caesar Sal uses the same pickle-forward chicken salad alongside fresh dill, Parmesan, pickled red onion, spicy broccoli, garlic breadcrumbs, lemon and Caesar dressing, with a pickle spear. The Double Chick Scoop offers two scoops of the dill-forward chicken salad with a pickle spear on the side.
Baz is a two-time New York Times bestselling cookbook author whose books include Cook This Book and More Is More. She is also a recipe developer and video host and operates The Club, a subscription-based digital recipe service.
Her food businesses include Ayoh and natural wine company Drink This Wine. Ayoh produces a line of flavored mayonnaise products built on an avocado oil mayo base, with varieties including Original Mayo, Dill Pickle Mayo, Tangy Dijonayo, Hot Giardinayo and Miso Mayo.
“Sweetgreen and I go wayyyy back, and I’ve been a fan for years, so returning as its first ever Chef in Residence is a very full-circle moment for me,” Baz said.
The collaboration extends beyond product development into Sweetgreen’s marketing. The company is supporting the launch with a campaign called Lunch Means Business, which places Baz in a stylized 1990s corporate environment where meetings revolve around tastings and menu decisions.
The campaign will run across Sweetgreen’s social and digital channels, in its restaurants and through out-of-home advertising in New York and California.
For Sweetgreen, the Chef in Residence program creates a framework for bringing external culinary voices into menu development while using limited-time products to generate new customer occasions and marketing content. Allen said Baz will be the first of multiple participants in the residency.
Sweetgreen operates more than 285 locations nationwide and has built its menu around salads, bowls and other made-to-order meals using seasonal ingredients.
The three Molly Baz menu items can be ordered in Sweetgreen restaurants, through the company’s app or online through November 9.
Dining and Cooking