Italian-born cook shows off bread she’s making Anna Prezio, a 73-year-old Italian-born California woman who has made a name for herself with social media videos showing her cooking her native country’s cuisine, tells Fox News Digital what bread she’s making for her son.
Panera Bread’s latest menu item is drawing backlash online, as employees of the chain are claiming the new item leads to perfectly good bread and extra salad being tossed in the trash. The fast-casual chain’s new Salad Stuffers, which launched April 8, are marketed as “a bread bowl for your salad.”
In Panera’s announcement earlier this month about the new category, chief marketing officer Mark Shambura said guests in testing “couldn’t get enough” of the new roll, and called the concept a fresh spin on the chain’s signature bread bowl. The reaction online, though, has been less enthusiastic.
“The core of the bread is thrown out, and a good chunk of the salad gets tossed in the trash, too,” someone claiming to be an employee at the chain wrote on Reddit’s Panera forum.
Another poster shared a photo on the same Reddit community, showing a tray piled with hollowed-out bread pieces.
Some commenters also questioned whether the item represents a true innovation – arguing it closely resembles a standard sandwich with minor changes.
Others suggested ways the leftover bread could be repurposed to reduce waste. Some critics have also pointed out that the item bears a resemblance to offerings from Bread Zeppelin, a Texas-based chain known for its salad-stuffed baguettes.
The chain has also emphasized that it repurposes leftover bread into items like croutons and bread pudding.
But not everyone was so quick to toss the Salad Stuffer. One Reddit commenter said the item was “delicious” and described it as “like a Panera version of a wrap.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Panera, which is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, for comment. In its announcement about the new Salad Stuffer item, the brand said, “Panera chefs and bakers innovated the new Italian Stuffer Roll to deliver the ideal balance of fluffy, soft bread and a freshly prepared dressed salad in every bite. Guests can make any salad on the menu a Stuffer, from classics like the Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken or Caesar Salad to two bold, chef-crafted options created specifically for this new innovation, available at participating cafés.” Panera Bread first opened in 1987. As of March 31, 2026, there were 2,251 bakery-cafés in 48 states, in Washington, D.C., and in Ontario, Canada, the company said in its release.
Deirdre Bardolf is a lifestyle writer with Fox News Digital.
