Instead of mayo, a light olive-oil dressing is the binder for Panera’s new Napa Almond Chicken Salad Sandwich.

“There's no question that there is this slow migration toward better-educated choices and better-for-me, more-nutritious food,” says Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of foodservice strategies for Dublin, Ohio-based WD Partners. “But 'healthy' means different things to different people. And what guests say they want and what they order are two different things.”

“The biggest hurdle with healthier menu options is getting consumers to try them,” says Tom Wagner, vice president of consumer insights for Irvine, Calif.-based restaurant chain Taco Bell. Take guests' wishy-washy initial reaction to the chain's Fresco menu of nine lower-fat, lower-calorie tacos and burritos. When first asked if they'd be interested in trying a more healthful taco or burrito, most said, “No way.” But once guests tried Fresco, they came back for more.

Schlotzsky’s Very Berry Salad is one of four entree salads now in test that were built to taste best in a low-fat, low-calorie form.

Like Taco Bell, many chains have experienced that marketing something as “healthy” can be more of a hurdle than a come-hither. “If you want them to try the healthier dish, you're far better off saying, 'Look, we have this great new tasty item we're offering,'” says Thomas John, executive chef and senior vice president of food and beverage for Boston-based Au Bon Pain. “We consciously don't say it's good for you at the point of purchase because in the past we've seen it doesn't sell.”

And so emerges the practice of stealth health: tweaking and reformulating recipes behind the scenes without tooting horns about it in POP signs. Information about lower calorie counts, sodium and such are more demurely listed on Web sites, brochures and tray liners.

“You still get credit from the guests to whom this matters because the information is available, but you don't lose the sale to that majority guest at the counter who is totally driven by perceived taste,” John says.

Boston Market is testing two new crunchy-crumb-topped, seasoning-coated, rotisserie chicken options: The Tuscan Herb (pictured) and the Lemon Herb.

Similarly, Richmond Heights, Mo.-based Panera Bread's new Napa Almond Chicken Salad Sandwich, $6.79 to $6.99, introduced in August and featuring antibiotic-free chicken, red grapes, diced celery and sliced almonds, uses a light olive-oil dressing instead of mayonnaise but will not be promoted as lower-fat on signage.

Also on the down-low, both Golden, Colo.-based Boston Market and Dallas-based Corner Bakery tweaked chicken recipes in the last year—one to remove artificial color and preservatives from its chicken marinade, the other to reduce sodium content in chicken noodle soup. Neither skewed the changes as better for you. Both won “better flavor” kudos from guests during taste tests.

“I think part of this is because we didn't focus on what we took away but instead what we added: lots of flavor,” says Ric Scicchitano, senior vice president of food and beverage at 115-unit Corner Bakery. Launched in spring, the new soup, $3.39 to $3.49, reduced sodium by a double-digit percentage but was praised by guests for tasting fresher and more chickeny. Since the change, sales of Corner Bakery's chicken noodle soup have increased by 20 to 25 percent.

Pei Wei Asian Diner is quietly moving to a lower-sodium version of its popular Spicy Korean Chicken entree.

Fiddling with Favorites

Some of the tiptoeing around healthy revamps comes with changing best-selling recipes. “As much as we want to reduce sodium, we are a little apprehensive about changing long-time favorite dishes,” says Eric Justice, vice president of culinary operations for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Pei Wei Asian Diner.

It took a long time to develop a lower-sodium version of Pei Wei's popular Spicy Korean Chicken, $7.95, “because we have a large group of fans that know the flavor of that dish very well,” Justice explains. He lowered sodium by switching to a combination of low-sodium and regular soy sauce and adjusting other ingredients.

As it goes into restaurants this fall, the new version won't be promoted as lower sodium. “We will actually just make the switch without any major announcement,” Justice says. “If you tell them its different, they think it tastes drastically different. My hope is to just make the improvement of the lower sodium without raising many eyebrows on flavor change.”

Rich Davis, vice president of culinary innovation at Boston Market, agrees: “There's only so much you can do with existing items and still have them taste the same.” Boston Market is switching to lower-milk-fat neufchatel cheese from cream cheese in creamed spinach and reducing the amount of sodium used in all existing menu items. “We'd like to step sodium down year over year for the next five years,” Davis says.

Best-O-Burger, a new better-burger chain from San Francisco, fries its food in rice-bran oil, a lesser-known nonsaturated fat with a light flavor.

Changing the Default

Because challenges with recipe redos are so great, chefs often prefer to focus on what they can do with new products and practices.

At Corner Bakery, “We're really resetting the default for every side item that goes on the plate,” says Scicchitano. “Instead of always defaulting to chips with sandwiches or white bread with egg dishes, were moving toward sending that sandwich out with fruit, those salads out with multigrain crisps, and those eggs with multigrain bread.”

Likewise, composing a new line of salads at Schlotzsky's, Director of Research and Development Jim Villemaire says, “we really worked hard to formulate the salads so that they really do taste best in a low-fat, low-calorie form. So it's not about removing something, it's about designing something from the start that's high flavor, low-fat and -calories.” Now in the second phase of testing, one of the best sellers in the four-item new salad lineup is the Very Berry Salad, $5.99 to $6.99, a mix of romaine, spinach and field greens with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, feta cheese, pecans and fat-free raspberry vinaigrette.

Best-O-Burger, a San Francisco-based better-burger chain with two units and five on the way from Chef Randy Lewis and Steve Weber, is the first chain to fry its food exclusively with rice-bran oil. Although expensive, the unsaturated oil has a light flavor, says Weber, and is very clean frying.

KFC's April-launched grilled chicken was designed to meet the needs of health-conscious consumers. Its launch was so successful, CEO David Novak said in second quarter remarks to analysts, that the grilled option has been sustaining at over 40 percent of on-the-bone sales and has the 14,000-unit chain planning major product innovation that will build off the grilled chicken platform.

And at Boston Market, Davis has been increasing the use of herbs, spices and infused vinegars to add flavor to chicken and other entrees. Two new crunchy-crumb-topped rotisserie chicken versions, Tuscan Herb (rosemary, thyme, oregano, garlic and crushed pepper) and Lemon Herb (lemon, thyme and garlic), join the core menu in 2010.

If these Tuscan chicken options do well, Davis is also readying Asian-seasoned marinades and coatings and South American chimichurri to follow. “I think it behooves us all to figure out ways to take what Mother Nature gave us and enhance it as little as possible while still ending up with something that tastes great,” he says.

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