Full at http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2011/05/31/mother-nature-make-me-rich/
NBC recently aired a show called America’s Next Great Restaurant. Contestants, each of whom hoped to open a restaurant chain, were put through a series of tests to see whose idea had the best chance for success. A panel of judges eliminated one person at the end of each program, until the last one standing was declared the winner and given money to open the chain. One of the judges was Steve Ells, CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, a large and rapidly growing chain of what the company says is a radically new kind of fast-food restaurant. The graphic on its website shows us the image Chipotle is trying to imprint on the public’s mind:
“It’s Not Just a Burrito. It’s a foil-wrapped, hand-crafted, local farm supporting, food culture changing cylinder of deliciousness.”
Ells, the son of a drug company executive, earned a degree in Art History from the University of Colorado and then graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1990. After two years in a San Francisco restaurant, he founded Chipotle in 1993, helped by an $85,000 loan from his father, who later put another $1.5 million into the business.
There was something about Ells on the NBC show that caught our attention. While the head judge, Bobby Flay, is a consummate chef and had a ready empathy for the would-be food entrepreneurs, Ells appeared cold and more interested in hard, competitive business practices than food. As it turns out, his appearance was not deceiving. D