Flavor Trailblazer: Mark Wynsma
This fast casual’s focus on innovation drives growth
Flavor Trailblazer: Mark Wynsma
This fast casual’s focus on innovation drives growth
By Katie Ayoub
May 22, 2025
By Katie Ayoub
May 22, 2025
Mark Wynsma
Sweetgreen stands out with a commitment to “new news” and consistent flavor innovation. Although the fast casual is known for its wholesome salads and bowls, it’s always putting craveable flavor experiences front and center. To gain deeper insights into this process, we spoke with Mark Wynsma, R&D chef at Sweetgreen, delving into recent bold moves and how the brand brings signature dishes to market.
Katie Ayoub: Let’s start with Sweetgreen’s best-selling dish.
Mark Wynsma: This is actually a really easy question to answer: Far and away, it’s our Harvest Bowl. It has such a great combination of flavors—super well-rounded and balanced. You’ve got your savory element from the chicken and your slightly acidic notes from the balsamic vinaigrette and the goat cheese. There’s also honey in our balsamic vinegar, so it’s nice and sweet. There are crunchy textures that come from roasted almonds and apple slices. And then the wild rice backs up the nutty notes from the almonds.
Credit: Sweetgreen Sweetgreen’s Harvest Bowl is its top seller, enticing guests with a wholesome and hearty blend of roasted chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, kale, apples, roasted almonds, wild rice and goat cheese, tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. Guests can add other seasonal elements, too, like maple-glazed Brussels sprouts.
KA: You have a really robust innovation pipeline. How do you approach development of new builds?
MW: We start with customer feedback; it’s first and foremost. We look at our menu holistically and examine where our gaps might be—and where that gap intersects with customer feedback.
For example, in prior years with our seasonal menus, our Brussels sprouts were shaved, then roasted with our in-house Umami Seasoning and served cold. By listening to customer feedback and aligning with our seasonal strategy, we landed on an updated way to serve them. So last fall, we brought Brussels sprouts back and really changed it up: We coated them in a maple glaze with a lot of Umami Seasoning, and we served them hot in larger pieces, so they took on this deep, roasted, caramelized, sweet flavor. It made them a little sweeter, a little savorier and just overall more craveable—that’s what our guests wanted.
Credit: Sweetgreen After analyzing guest feedback, Sweetgreen changed its shaved Brussels sprouts, served cold, to Maple-Glazed Brussels Sprouts, served warm. The new iteration boasts the brand’s proprietary Umami Seasoning, made with nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, chile pepper and cumin.
KA: Describe your LTO strategy.
MW: We definitely like to work seasonally. That approach is in our DNA and it goes hand in hand with our ethos. Of course, fruits and vegetables are best when eaten in season, and since we source locally, it also happens to work with our supply chain, so it’s a natural fit for us. We launch a special menu every season, and we also try to partner with chefs who are organically a good fit for us to do fun chef collabs. In the past, we’ve collaborated with Nancy Silverton, Dan Barber, David Chang, and have come out with really special flavor combinations. We like to take a signature of theirs and give it more mass appeal—and put our own fingerprint on it, too.
KA: Sweetgreen is known for incredible chef collabs. Describe the latest one—a Korean-leaning menu rollout of three items, partnering with Michelin-starred Cote Korean Steakhouse.
MW: The Cote team has been great to work and innovate with. It’s the only Michelin-starred Korean barbecue steakhouse in the world. I was really inspired by its menu and loved bridging the two styles of cooking and flavors. The collab menu, which has been really successful since launching, features the flavors of a Korean barbecue bowl and uses our really popular grass-fed steak. I was really inspired by Cote’s galbi sauce, which is this sweet, sticky, slightly peppery sauce in Korean barbecue. The bowl has fresh cucumber kimchi that we make in house and a delicious apple kimchi sauce. It’s also dressed with this amazing creamy barbecue sauce that we make.
Credit: Sweetgreen In its latest collab, Sweetgreen introduced the KBBQ Steak Bowl and the heartier KBBQ Steak Plate. Its vegetarian alternative, the Cucumber Kimchi Crunch Salad, features mixed greens, roasted sweet potato, cucumber kimchi, spicy broccoli, KBBQ glaze, apple kimchi sauce, pickled cabbage and crispy onions.
KA: Let’s talk about the thinking behind your new Ripple Fries.
MW: We thought the pairing of a Caesar salad with fries was a natural fit for us. It’s all over social media and just felt like a good brand fit that we’re hitting at the right time. We started working on how to put out super-crispy, craveable fries and landed on this ripple cut because there’s more surface area for the airflow to get under and over. It also allows for more seasoning to cling to the surface of the fry and more sauce coverage. We tried more than a hundred different iterations in every shape and width—everything from diced to steak fries to wedges to crosscut traditional french fries. We really love our ripple fry and think it’s super craveable. We serve it with pickle ketchup and garlic aïoli.
Credit: Sweetgreen Sweetgreen successfully keys into the “Girl Dinner” TikTok trend, as well as answering an eternal call from consumers for a craveable fry. The Ripple Fries buddies up to either pickle ketchup or garlic aïoli.
QUICKFIRE
Source of inspiration:
We have restaurants all over the country, and when I’m visiting those locations, I love to see what other chefs are doing. And in my free time, I love to travel internationally. I’ve recently traveled to Mexico and France, and I have a trip coming up in the fall to Japan and Korea. Traveling and trying new things always keeps me inspired, keeps me fresh.
Something in your fridge that would surprise people:
From my most recent trip to France, I did bring back a ton of the Le Beurre Bordier butter—it’s the best! I brought back all the flavors: seaweed, yuzu, spring onion, bourbon, vanilla, raspberry. So my fridge is a showcase of butter.
Cuisine or ingredient you’re particularly excited to explore:
Anything pickled, confited, fermented, dried… just concentrating those flavors, seeing what they transform into. Sometimes you just don’t know until you try it.
Your go-to late-night snack:
If it’s savory, I always have a big chunk of Parmesan cheese and slices of prosciutto in the fridge for my go-to. If I’m craving something sweet, it’s usually Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, the Sicilian Pistachio or Earl Grey with Honeycomb—so good.
Best bite you’ve had recently:
We recently enjoyed a team dinner at Bridges in New York’s Chinatown. We had this delicious appetizer of sashimi cuts of tuna belly and tuna loin, topped with trumpet mushrooms and served over dates. It sounds a little crazy, but the flavor combination was shockingly delicious.
Mark Wynsma
Sweetgreen stands out with a commitment to “new news” and consistent flavor innovation. Although the fast casual is known for its wholesome salads and bowls, it’s always putting craveable flavor experiences front and center. To gain deeper insights into this process, we spoke with Mark Wynsma, R&D chef at Sweetgreen, delving into recent bold moves and how the brand brings signature dishes to market.
Katie Ayoub: Let’s start with Sweetgreen’s best-selling dish.
Mark Wynsma: This is actually a really easy question to answer: Far and away, it’s our Harvest Bowl. It has such a great combination of flavors—super well-rounded and balanced. You’ve got your savory element from the chicken and your slightly acidic notes from the balsamic vinaigrette and the goat cheese. There’s also honey in our balsamic vinegar, so it’s nice and sweet. There are crunchy textures that come from roasted almonds and apple slices. And then the wild rice backs up the nutty notes from the almonds.
Credit: Sweetgreen Sweetgreen’s Harvest Bowl is its top seller, enticing guests with a wholesome and hearty blend of roasted chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, kale, apples, roasted almonds, wild rice and goat cheese, tossed in balsamic vinaigrette. Guests can add other seasonal elements, too, like maple-glazed Brussels sprouts.
KA: You have a really robust innovation pipeline. How do you approach development of new builds?
MW: We start with customer feedback; it’s first and foremost. We look at our menu holistically and examine where our gaps might be—and where that gap intersects with customer feedback.
For example, in prior years with our seasonal menus, our Brussels sprouts were shaved, then roasted with our in-house Umami Seasoning and served cold. By listening to customer feedback and aligning with our seasonal strategy, we landed on an updated way to serve them. So last fall, we brought Brussels sprouts back and really changed it up: We coated them in a maple glaze with a lot of Umami Seasoning, and we served them hot in larger pieces, so they took on this deep, roasted, caramelized, sweet flavor. It made them a little sweeter, a little savorier and just overall more craveable—that’s what our guests wanted.
Credit: Sweetgreen After analyzing guest feedback, Sweetgreen changed its shaved Brussels sprouts, served cold, to Maple-Glazed Brussels Sprouts, served warm. The new iteration boasts the brand’s proprietary Umami Seasoning, made with nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, chile pepper and cumin.
KA: Describe your LTO strategy.
MW: We definitely like to work seasonally. That approach is in our DNA and it goes hand in hand with our ethos. Of course, fruits and vegetables are best when eaten in season, and since we source locally, it also happens to work with our supply chain, so it’s a natural fit for us. We launch a special menu every season, and we also try to partner with chefs who are organically a good fit for us to do fun chef collabs. In the past, we’ve collaborated with Nancy Silverton, Dan Barber, David Chang, and have come out with really special flavor combinations. We like to take a signature of theirs and give it more mass appeal—and put our own fingerprint on it, too.
KA: Sweetgreen is known for incredible chef collabs. Describe the latest one—a Korean-leaning menu rollout of three items, partnering with Michelin-starred Cote Korean Steakhouse.
MW: The Cote team has been great to work and innovate with. It’s the only Michelin-starred Korean barbecue steakhouse in the world. I was really inspired by its menu and loved bridging the two styles of cooking and flavors. The collab menu, which has been really successful since launching, features the flavors of a Korean barbecue bowl and uses our really popular grass-fed steak. I was really inspired by Cote’s galbi sauce, which is this sweet, sticky, slightly peppery sauce in Korean barbecue. The bowl has fresh cucumber kimchi that we make in house and a delicious apple kimchi sauce. It’s also dressed with this amazing creamy barbecue sauce that we make.
Credit: Sweetgreen In its latest collab, Sweetgreen introduced the KBBQ Steak Bowl and the heartier KBBQ Steak Plate. Its vegetarian alternative, the Cucumber Kimchi Crunch Salad, features mixed greens, roasted sweet potato, cucumber kimchi, spicy broccoli, KBBQ glaze, apple kimchi sauce, pickled cabbage and crispy onions.
KA: Let’s talk about the thinking behind your new Ripple Fries.
MW: We thought the pairing of a Caesar salad with fries was a natural fit for us. It’s all over social media and just felt like a good brand fit that we’re hitting at the right time. We started working on how to put out super-crispy, craveable fries and landed on this ripple cut because there’s more surface area for the airflow to get under and over. It also allows for more seasoning to cling to the surface of the fry and more sauce coverage. We tried more than a hundred different iterations in every shape and width—everything from diced to steak fries to wedges to crosscut traditional french fries. We really love our ripple fry and think it’s super craveable. We serve it with pickle ketchup and garlic aïoli.
Credit: Sweetgreen Sweetgreen successfully keys into the “Girl Dinner” TikTok trend, as well as answering an eternal call from consumers for a craveable fry. The Ripple Fries buddies up to either pickle ketchup or garlic aïoli.
QUICKFIRE
Source of inspiration:
We have restaurants all over the country, and when I’m visiting those locations, I love to see what other chefs are doing. And in my free time, I love to travel internationally. I’ve recently traveled to Mexico and France, and I have a trip coming up in the fall to Japan and Korea. Traveling and trying new things always keeps me inspired, keeps me fresh.
Something in your fridge that would surprise people:
From my most recent trip to France, I did bring back a ton of the Le Beurre Bordier butter—it’s the best! I brought back all the flavors: seaweed, yuzu, spring onion, bourbon, vanilla, raspberry. So my fridge is a showcase of butter.
Cuisine or ingredient you’re particularly excited to explore:
Anything pickled, confited, fermented, dried… just concentrating those flavors, seeing what they transform into. Sometimes you just don’t know until you try it.
Your go-to late-night snack:
If it’s savory, I always have a big chunk of Parmesan cheese and slices of prosciutto in the fridge for my go-to. If I’m craving something sweet, it’s usually Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, the Sicilian Pistachio or Earl Grey with Honeycomb—so good.
Best bite you’ve had recently:
We recently enjoyed a team dinner at Bridges in New York’s Chinatown. We had this delicious appetizer of sashimi cuts of tuna belly and tuna loin, topped with trumpet mushrooms and served over dates. It sounds a little crazy, but the flavor combination was shockingly delicious.
About the Author
Katie Ayoub serves as managing editor of Flavor & The Menu and content strategist for the Flavor Experience, an annual conference geared toward chain operators. She is president of Katie Ayoub & Associates, serving up menu trends expertise, content creation and food & beverage consultancy. Based in Chicago, Katie has been working in foodservice publishing for more than 20 years and part of the Flavor team since 2006. [email protected]
