Quotes from Steve Ells

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.

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.

My father is very supportive of anything that his kids want to do.

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.

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.

Despite offering dollar menus and frequent discounts, many of these chains also scored poorly in terms of value.

Think about the systems at McDonald's. It's a very mechanized world, where you take out a highly processed patty.

If we really want to change the way Americans eat, we need to make delicious, sustainably-raised food accessible to everyone. Most people are not willing to sacrifice taste or pay a lot more when it comes to eating better. That's why the Chipotle model is so important.

The gimmicks that have driven the fast food sector for years - dollar menus, limited time offers, and merchandising partnerships - are not producing results like they used to, as consumers simply want better tasting, nutritious food and a more compelling experience, not gimmicks.

We can teach people how to run a Chipotle.

I remember looking to McDonald's, and, my God, they have 13,000 restaurants in the United States. Well, we have almost a couple thousand Chipotles. What if Pizzeria Locale is a few thousand, and Shod. All of a sudden, we're bigger than McDonald's in the U.S. I mean, that's not an unreasonable way to think about this.

So much of today's food is based on the exploitation of animals and the environment. Yes, it's cheap, but at what cost?

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.

We want to make the old fast food model irrelevant. We want to make great ingredients and classic cooking techniques accessible to everybody.

The traditional fast food model is built on buying the cheapest ingredients - and that usually means poor-quality, heavily processed foods. But you can use quality ingredients, cook food using classic cooking techniques, and still serve something that's fast and inexpensive.

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 started Chipotle with the idea to create an experience that's fast - and not fast food.

Chipotle is really showing that there's a better way to do fast food.

We have a terrific team, and our managers are terrific managers, but we have made it too complicated for them and too complicated in a way that they just can't do an excellent job in many cases when it comes to the customer experience.

I was so terrified that the business would not do well and that there would be no way that I would be in a position to pay my dad back this $80,000. At Stars, as a line cook, I think that I was making $10 or $12 an hour. So $80,000 - to have to pay that back was incomprehensible.

When our folks focus on exactly what is needed to succeed in the restaurants, they should be able to lead themselves to restaurateur level.

Chipotle was wildly successful, and I thought, 'Well, let me open one more.'

To eat chicken that was raised with antibiotics is safe, right? But long-term, relying on antibiotics as part of our livestock production is probably not the right thing to do. To not serve chicken means that there's not an economic engine that's making it possible to build up a supply of antibiotic-free meat.

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.