As the founder, chairman and co-chief executive of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Steve Ells is as likely to be found on a farm as in the kitchen chopping onions or cleaning a window of one of the restaurants in this now more than 900-unit fast-casual chain.
Ells launched Chipotle a few years after graduating from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. While training at Jeremiah Towers’ Stars restaurant in San Francisco, Ells was inspired by the local taquerias. He thought he could do a quick-service, Americanized Mexican restaurant concept that would help him raise money for a full-service restaurant. With money he borrowed from his father, he returned to Colorado and opened the first Chipotle in a remodeled ice cream shop near the University of Denver in 1993.
Although the concept was fast, the service model allowed employees to make individual orders for customers as they walked through the serving line. The restaurant quickly won acclaim for its grilled meats, chipotle marinade and cilantro-and-lime rice. The concept took off; by his third Chipotle, Ells’ mission had changed. He still wanted to offer fresh, high-quality, classically prepared meals in an inviting atmosphere, but instead of just one high-end restaurant, Ells realized he could offer that to more people through Chipotle while also changing the way people looked at fast food.
“I met Steve Ells about two years ago when he was cleaning the window of the 8th Street location, near NYU. Ells has done an amazing job with operations, with standards. The menu is fresh and delicious. The staff is great. He created a great model financially and operationally. Steve is very long-term focused and he has a lot of foresight.”—Kenny Lao, co-owner of Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, New York
Guided by Chipotle’s Food with Integrity mission, all of the pork and chicken and about half of the beef come from animals that are raised humanely. Chipotle now employs more than 25,000 people and does about $1.3 billion in annual revenue. Ells, whose salary and bonus was more than $1 million in 2008, lives in New York and shares the chief executive position with Monty Moran. Ells continues to seek out suppliers with humane animal practices, and he has become an advocate for environmental sustainability.
Do you get much time in the kitchen now, as a CEO?
When we visit restaurants, we go in and jump on the line and cook. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shown someone the way to chop an onion or sharpen a knife or wipe a table clean. I’m always focusing on these details. I can see from 30 feet whether the grill is hot enough by the way the chicken is cooking. It’s sharing these kinds of lessons with the crew that is so much fun, and empowering them to teach it to one another makes it part of the culture.
How did your culinary experience prepare you to run a restaurant chain?
It influenced the way I think about the business, for sure. One of the things I always think about first and foremost is how are we satisfying the customer? How does the food taste? That is the most important part of this for me. It’s the reason people go to Chipotle often.
How long did it take you to develop the menu?
The first burrito I made was a carnitas. I made it like a month before we opened up the first Chipotle. It’s the same burrito today. I spent a couple of days cooking and preparing. It really happened that way.
Your food focus now seems to be more about the source than the preparation.
When I started Chipotle it was all about fresh and prepared in front of the customer. Fresh is very important and it’s still important, but fresh is not enough anymore. A lot of our development is based around finding better raw ingredients. We need to understand the progression of the food; we need to understand its impact if ultimately we want to provide real nourishing food. It’s not an easy message and not something people are asking for. But it’s something we believe in deeply, and it’s something that guides us. Hopefully our customers, all million per day that come through Chipotle, realize we care deeply about what they are eating.
STEVE ELLS Title: chairman and co-chief executive of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., DenverBirth date: Sept. 12, 1965Birthplace: IndianapolisEducation: University of Colorado, B.A. in art history, 1988; The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y., 1990First job: line cook, Stars, San FranciscoCareer turning point: After learning about a farmer who raised pigs without using antibiotics or confining them, Ells changed Chipotle’s supply chain and became an advocate of sustainably grown produce and naturally and humanely raised proteins.