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We aspire to make artisanal tortillas on an industrial scale.
Focus on just a few things, and do them better than anybody else.
My father is very supportive of anything that his kids want to do.
From the very beginning. I didn't know what the fast-food rules were.
Chipotle is really showing that there's a better way to do fast food.
Chipotle was wildly successful, and I thought, 'Well, let me open one more.'
Our investors are here for only one reason: great returns. They want to make money.
If food is processed - like canned or frozen - you can reduce the risks of pathogens.
I started Chipotle with the idea to create an experience that's fast - and not fast food.
I'm always tweaking, always trying to make it better, constantly moving the levers and dials.
Looking inward and understanding where you made mistakes in the past helps you set up for change.
I am deeply sorry that people got sick from eating at our restaurants. It's the worst thing that can happen.
Despite offering dollar menus and frequent discounts, many of these chains also scored poorly in terms of value.
You cannot take shortcuts. We've shown that we can spend more on ingredients, not less, and charge a fair price.
Think about the systems at McDonald's. It's a very mechanized world, where you take out a highly processed patty.
So much of today's food is based on the exploitation of animals and the environment. Yes, it's cheap, but at what cost?
It is impossible to insure that there is a zero percent chance of any kind of foodborne illness anytime anyone eats anywhere.
After operating in three diverse markets, we have determined ShopHouse hasn't demonstrated an attractive unit economic model.
When I started on the very first day with just one restaurant, we used to pick oregano off the stems and chop them. We still do that.
Chipotle was going to incorporate all the things I had learned at the Culinary Institute and Stars and really elevate typical fast food.
The bottom line - customers want delicious food served quickly in an interactive format, and they are increasingly unwilling to compromise.
When our folks focus on exactly what is needed to succeed in the restaurants, they should be able to lead themselves to restaurateur level.
We want to make the old fast food model irrelevant. We want to make great ingredients and classic cooking techniques accessible to everybody.
We have two day-parts, lunch and dinner. We don't have breakfast. We don't have drive-thru. We don't have late night. We don't have 24-hours.
The idea for Chipotle is a sort of combination of food borrowed from Stars and sort of a technique and a service format borrowed from the taquerias.
Certainly, in college, I had no idea what I wanted to do, I studied art history and had a great time, but I didn't have any sort of career aspirations.
The earliest recollection I have of being in the kitchen and cooking was in the third grade, and we lived in Germany. And I remember cooking scrambled eggs.
People were asking me all kinds of questions about the business, and I was initially put off. I was like, 'Just invest if you want to invest. Don't bother me.'
We want to show all of our customers that the industry standards that we had been employing before - which are considered great standards - were not good enough.
Our commitment to serving produce from local farms and other sustainable sources is one of the ways we are changing the way people think about and eat fast food.
When I started Chipotle, I didn't know the fast-food rules. People told us the food was too expensive and the menu was too limited. Neither turned out to be true.
The best Chipotle restaurant managers get the title 'restaurateur' and a $10,000 bonus for each person they hire who starts as crew and goes on to become a manager.
We decided long ago that we didn't want Chipotle's success to be tied to the exploitation of animals, farmers, or the environment, but the engagement of our customers.
The first Chipotle was intended to be my source of funding for a full-scale restaurant, a means to an end. But it turned out to be more successful than I ever imagined.
Being in compliance with industry standards is less than 5 percent of what companies need to do to make food safe. Company after company finds that out after they have events.
We keep the menu of burritos, tacos, and salads simple so we can make it using high quality fresh ingredients that are actually prepared and cooked on site rather than re-heated.
Having never taken a business class, the economics of restaurants scared me. I opened Chipotle with the idea that I could step away from it and use it to support my full-scale restaurant.
Just because food is served fast doesn't mean it has to be made with cheap raw ingredients, highly processed with preservatives and fillers and stabilizers and artificial colors and flavors.
I certainly could've made a lot more money buying cheap ingredients, and people might not have been able to tell the difference. That was never a part of the calculus. It was not part of my DNA.
Chipotle is based on a very simple idea: We start with great ingredients, prepare them using classic cooking techniques, and serve them in a way that allows people to get exactly what they want.
I remember feeling a little guilty every time I opened a Chipotle. I felt guilty because I wasn't following my true passion. But that eventually went away. And I realized that this is my calling.
I am incredibly proud of Chipotle and our people - and grateful to our loyal customers - and while we are continuing to make progress, it is clear that we need to move faster to make improvements.
We can assure you today that there is no E. coli in Chipotle. We have thoroughly tested our food, we have thoroughly tested our surfaces, and we are confident that Chipotle is a safe place to eat.
When our employees walk in in the morning, they see food. They have to cook. At the restaurants, we chop cilantro, onions, and limes two or three times a day. We make guacamole from fresh avocados.
Stars was really good training. You know, we would come in at noon, and, you know, we would learn at that time what we were going to cook that evening. And, you know, there wasn't a set menu per se.
The economic model was formed by the constraints that I had: a small space, relatively inexpensive building materials, relatively inexpensive investment, a very efficient service line or assembly line.
When I graduated from cooking school, I went to work at Stars, which was one of my favorite restaurants in the country at the time, and that's where I really learned to cook and to taste food in a discerning way.
For too long, great food has really only been available in high-end restaurants and specialty food markets, but Chipotle is making the same gourmet quality food available and affordable so everyone can eat better.
We have tacos and burritos and things that sound Mexican. But to me, it's about great-tasting food in an atmosphere sympathetic to the food, prepared freshly and served to the customer in a way that's customizable.
I use a lot of citrus for seasoning. There's lemon or lime juice in just about everything, and that balances with salt very nicely. Things like toasted cumin seeds for the beans. The use of fresh herbs like oregano and cilantro.