Steve Ells Quotes

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

The bottom line - customers want delicious food served quickly in an interactive format, and they are increasingly unwilling to compromise.

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

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

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 is so much to be gained from investing more time in what we eat. Buying fresh ingredients means knowing where your food comes from and what's in it.

I believe that anyone can cook a great meal. Basically all you need to do is get your hands on some fresh ingredients and not be afraid to make a mess in the kitchen.

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.

We provide food that customers love, day after day after day. People just want more of it.

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.

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

For me, the good food starts with good product.

Our investments continue to be few in number and simple in concept: The truly big investment idea can usually be explained in a short paragraph. We like a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people. When these attributes exist, and when we can make purchases at sensible prices, it is hard to go wrong (a challenge we periodically manage to overcome).

Reward is a happy customer - and an empty plate.

The idea part is simple but the visual perception is complex.

American business at this point is really about developing an idea, making it profitable, selling it while it's profitable and then getting out or diversifying. It's just about sucking everything up. My idea was: Enjoy baking, sell your bread, people like it, sell more. Keep the bakery going because you're making good food and people are happy.

Customers want high quality at low prices and they want it now.

The greatest dishes are very simple.

Be a fearless cook! Try out new ideas and new recipes, but always buy the freshest and finest ingredients, whatever they may be. Furnish your kitchen with the most solid and workmanlike equipment you can find. Keep your knives ever sharp and - toujours bon appetit!

Hemingway, damn his soul, makes everything he writes terrifically exciting (and incidentally makes all us second-raters seem positively adolescent) by the seemingly simple expedient of the iceberg principle - three-fourths of the substance under the surface. He comes closer that way to retaining the magic of the original, unexpressed idea or emotion, which is always more stirring than any words. But just try and do it!

My idea of happiness is effortless happiness. The things that ground you. For me it's art and cooking, for example, and when I can be with my friends and the people I love and do simple things. That's when I'm the happiest.

The idea that comics stores, distributors and publishers simply 'give the customers what they want' is nonsense. What the customers wanted they didn't get - and they left.

My natural tendency is to complicate everything--and then to spray words and ideas onto everything afterwards. I've had to develop the habit of keeping things simple.

If we want a better original idea, we must generate our own before we screen others' suggestions.

Seriously, if someone don't like this appetizer, you gotta grab they scruffy ass by the back of their neck and throw them out on the lawn. I can't help people like that.