Steve Ells Quotes

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

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.

One of the pivotal moments for me was realizing that our 'food with integrity' approach at Chipotle was satisfying my passion. That's about bringing the best quality, sustainably-raised ingredients to everyone: chicken without antibiotics; beef without hormones. These ingredients were only available in high-end restaurants, not mainstream places.

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.

Go to the grocery store and buy better things. Buy quality, buy organic, buy natural, go to the farmers market. Immediately that's going to increase the quality of the food you make.

Most of all, I love unfussy, unpretentious, simple food made with excellent ingredients. If I'm a snob, it's about quality, not cuisine.

I try to stay away, but In-N-Out, you just can't compare it. It's the best. It's the best. It's healthy fast food; they do their own meat and their own salad.

I joined the board of Chipotle because no company has ever been able to scale fresh, properly sourced food in the history of America.

I think food is getting lighter and healthier because people eat out so often. It's about quality ingredients because that is the root of good 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.

I like Monoloco in Petersfield, Hampshire, and Little Dorrit in London's Borough Market. Everything's delicious, healthy, and inexpensive.

Chipotle was going to incorporate all the things I had learned at the Culinary Institute and Stars and really elevate typical fast food.

Like many other chef-entrepreneurs, I am convinced that fast food does not mean bad food.

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

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.

There's a place called Chipotle in the U.S. It's Mexican food where everything is made to order; you can get some rice, black beans, and meat. That's what I eat three times a day.

Starbucks is committed to evolving and enhancing our customer experience with innovative and wholesome food offerings.

To me, you make a tradeoff. It might be a little bit more expensive. But you're getting a better tasting, higher quality food that's going to be better for your health and better for the environment.

McDonald's is good for me.

Back in the day, we ate fresh; our parents cooked. Now, we're starting to think things are fresh because they're in a can, they're in a box, or they're frozen. That's not fresh. It's difficult to get real fresh.

One of my rules is pay more, eat less. You do get what you pay for, and if you're willing to pay more for pastured eggs or grass-fed beef, you're getting something that's more delicious, and you'll feel better about eating it.

Ultimately, the bread and butter of McDonald's is delivering great service, great quality food, at affordable prices day in and day out.

As a student of Alice Waters, the patron saint of salad, I'm no stranger to the art of lettuce washing.

Jimmy John's is what it is. We strive for a consistent experience that is consistently good.

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.