Steve Ells Quotes

Usually, cheap food is not nutritious. You're feeding people, but you're not really feeding people something that is good for them.

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

Being on the road is no excuse for having a poor diet. I don't like fast food, but if I have to, I'll order three plain grilled chicken sandwiches and throw out the buns.

It's not a question of McDonald's vanishing from the face of the earth. It's a question of these companies assuming some more responsibility for what they're selling.

You feel better when you're eating food that retains nutritional value.

If you have good food, people will come to your restaurant.

Just because we eat together does not mean we eat right: Domino's alone delivers a million pizzas on an average day.

Really, the only way to face the biggest problems we have is for the government to change the way they subsidize food. The way we subsidize food makes it cheaper to go to McDonald's and get a hamburger than a salad, and that's insane.

High-quality food is better for your health.

During the day I force myself to at least eat some salads rather than rubbish, and a steak in the evening. In fact, I eat to basically satisfy my hunger. I hardly have the time to appreciate a meal, and I'm everything, but a gourmet.

Just because you eat doesn't mean you eat smart. It's hard to beat a $1.99 wing pack of three at a fast-food restaurant - it's so cheap - but that wing pack isn't feeding anyone, it's just pushing hunger back an hour.

I think that Subway has shown their own personal commitment as a company and how they believe in healthy choices.

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.

I do watch what I eat, but I don't make it myself. When I eat out, I just have to make sure the things I buy are good and healthy.

The Cheesecake Factory's not that bad.

There's great food everywhere, and even McDonald's uses nice wood now.

Basically, there are two things we know: Everybody has less time, and the general public is demanding better food - better in terms of quality and better in terms of flavor.

It just seems that you were talking positively about McDonald's, that they are... attempting this healthy lifestyle, and yet when we're talking right now... it seems that you're saying they need to make more responsibility.

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.

One of the effects of cheap food is, we have food that is so unsatisfactory. We need to go back to flavor.

Heads know that failing to invest in good, nutritious food is a false economy and parents won't tolerate reconstituted turkey being put back on the menu.

We make decisions every day about what we're going to eat. And some people want to buy Nike shoes - two pairs, and other people want to eat Bronx grapes and nourish themselves. I pay a little extra, but this is what I want to do.

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.

You can have intense food experience with less food. Europeans have intense food experiences but eat less food.

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.