The harmonious clatter of pans and the joyous laughter hit your eardrums as you open the door into Chipotle. As you look around, you see framed pictures and industrious artworks hanging on the walls. Before you know it, you’re up next to order. “White rice, black beans, and chicken. Mild salsa, sour cream, cheese, and lettuce.” As the worker goes to roll the burrito, she handles it with delicacy and creates a perfect burrito: an artwork in itself.
Food is art. Each morning, the Chipotle workers come in and create the salsas and guacamole, cook the meats, chop the lettuce, onions, peppers, and jalapeños with care and precision. When combined together in the way the customer wants the ingredients to be, the individual components blend together to create an unique burrito.
Recently, my Restaurateur manager opened his second store in Upper West Side, Manhattan. The newly hires went through orientation, and they found out about the background of Chipotle and how it came to be. This made me think back to the beginnings of my intimate relationship with Chipotle.
How exactly did Chipotle come to be one of the well-known fast food joints? Did it just drop out of Mexican food heaven?
Chipotle was created by a genius culinary expert: Steve Ells. Steve Ells had thoughts of opening his own restaurant after attending the Culinary Institute of America and working at a restaurant. As he was eating his food one day while sitting inside Taquerias, a small restaurant that he frequently ate at, the idea for Chipotle occurred to him. He was intrigued by the concept of a burrito, how all the ingredients were inside a large tortilla then wrapped in foil. Steve decided to take this concept and experiment with it through using authentic ingredients. Steve also found interesting how there were only a few people behind the counter assembling the burrito. Steve saw this as an economic model, which he found very odd because he never took any business courses; however, Steve did take a plethora of art related classes, such as art history. This was the first time that Steve saw a restaurant as more than the food and the experience; Steve saw the economic values that were not present to him before. With the help of his parents, Steve opened the first Chipotle in 1993 in Denver, Colorado. While his friends had doubted his idea, Steve was determined to expose an elevated fast food restaurant to the public. Twenty years later, Chipotle is an extremely successful business. There are thousands of Chipotle restaurants across the United States, and the company has started to expand into Canada and other nations, such as Europe.
Chipotle is different from other fast food businesses because each Chipotle restaurant receives its food from local farmers, following the concept of Food With Integrity. Food With Integrity is Chipotle’s “commitment to finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment, and the farmers”. Not only is Chipotle concerned with properly raised and maintained animals and vegetables, Chipotle is also looking to design its stores to be environmentally sustainable and eco-friendly. By looking for ways to make each ingredient available to the consumers in its purest form, Chipotle is changing how fast food is perceived.
When my boss and I walked into a nearby Duane Reade to buy some supplies for the training staff, the owner of the convenience store was enthusiastically excited about Chipotle’s grand opening.
“When do you open? My daughter loves your food, and I can’t wait to try it for myself!”
Patrick, the general manager, told me of an instance when he was on his way to the store from the subway station. “This whole neighborhood is eager for Chipotle to open! The other day, some people came up to me to ask me when Chipotle was opening. When I told them Monday, they ran off to tell their friends”.
Chipotle is ahead of the fast food pack. Not only is Chipotle promoting Food With Integrity, the company is also trying to make all of the other ingredients better for human health without losing the taste. After experimenting with the bacon seasoned pinto beans, the pinto beans are now part of the same vegetarian family as the black beans. The chips and crispy taco shells started to be fried in zero trans fat oil since 2004, two years before New York banned the use of trans fat. In 2007, Chipotle had stopped using cheese and sour cream that had rBGH incorporated. As a consumer of fast food, it is comforting to know that Chipotle truly cares for the health of the public over the cost, approximately one-third of the profits earned at each store, of receiving these fresh ingredients and the time it takes to prepare the food. It is reassuring to know how the meats and vegetables are being handled rather than not know whether or not the Chicken McNuggets at McDonalds is made from chicken.
Steve Ells and Chipotle are changing the way people perceive fast food. Chipotle is a fast food joint; however, that doesn’t mean that the restaurant has to sacrifice the health of animals, the proper treatment of vegetables, and ultimately, the well being of humans, for the taste of the food and the efficiency in which the food in created. Steve Ells is changing the culture of fast food. Steve Ells is changing the art of fast food. By following the concept of Food With Integrity, Chipotle has brightened the mysterious world of fast food.
