Celebrity chef David Burke created the Chicken Asparagusto Salad for Saladworks’ 2008 Signature Series collection.

In July Saladworks launched Burke's Chicken Asparagusto Salad, $8.79. The limited-time offer is a mix of grilled chicken, asparagus, cucumbers, sweet peppers and almonds on a bed of iceberg and romaine lettuce topped with Caesar dressing.

Burke says he chose the ingredients because they “really balance each other out, sweet and salty, crisp and crunchy, and a lot of flavor.” The Market Salad at Burke's davidburke & donatella restaurant served as his inspiration. With chicken, walnuts, goat cheese, tomatoes and walnut vinaigrette, the Market Salad has a similar consistency and flavor profile, Burke says.

Chicken Asparagusto will be featured in Saladworks 96 stores until October, when the fourth yet-to-be determined Signature Series salad for 2008 debuts.

Hope Cohen, host of “The Chef's Kitchen,“ developed the Avocadolicious Salad, which included avocado, Mandarin oranges and spring mix with a lemon-dill vinaigrette, as Saladworks' second-quarter LTO.

Jim Coleman, host of the “Flavors of America” cooking show on The Comcast Network, created the Wild Alaskan Grilled Salmon Salad for the first quarter. Priced at $9.29, the chilled salmon salad included mixed greens with grape tomatoes, dried cranberries, walnuts, a spicy pepper-cucumber slaw garnish and raspberry-maple vinaigrette. The salad upped sales 10.8 percent and traffic 9 percent, compared with the month previous to launch.

In the second quarter, Saladworks featured the Avocadolicious Salad from Hope Cohen, host of “The Chef's Kitchen,” also on The Comcast Network, from April to July. The $8.49 salad had avocado, Mandarin oranges, hearts of palm, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, garbanzo beans and spring mix with lemon-dill vinaigrette. It increased sales 4.5 percent vs. the month prior to its debut.

Looking ahead, Saladworks is in discussion with a “household name chef” to create all four Signature Series salads for 2009. It plans to keep the salads as limited-time offers. “But we are not opposed to bringing any of the Signature Series salads back, if our customers demand them,” Pantano concludes.