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The article doesn't mention that Taco Bell's kitchen systems are designed to eliminate many weak links in fast food preparation and handling. It doesn't preven
by joezydeco 9y ago
The article doesn't mention that Taco Bell's kitchen systems are designed to eliminate many weak links in fast food preparation and handling. It doesn't prevent the line worker from sneezing influenza on the burrito, but that's also not how you get e.coli outbreaks.
If CMG is looking to get past their previous history of systemic food safety issues, this was probably a good choice.
- slg 9y agoThe article also doesn't mention that Chipotle's first big period of expansion was while it was owned by McDonalds. I have to imagine that McDonalds had an expertise in this area that at least matched Taco Bell if not greatly exceeded them.
- joezydeco 9y agoMcDonald's did indeed help Chipotle get their logistical systems in order. CMG and MCD still share some common suppliers. One area where Chipotle resisted McD's advice was in automating their kitchen systems. One example was the steak. CMG believed hand-marinating and grilling their steaks in-store was a core feature that couldn't be changed. It's also a highly risky procedure when it comes to food safety and cross-contamination. Other things, like the carnitas and barbacoa, were changed to be prepared offsite and shipped to the stores for sous-vide rethermalizing and serving. The steak was also changed to this method after the outbreaks (and long after MCD divested).
- jdavis703 9y agoWhy is it so hard for a fast food chain to avoid cross-contamination vs. other restaurants? Is it because they don't train workers properly?
- ac29 9y agoOther restaurants have food-borne illness problems occasionally too, but when you have thousands of locations it makes national news.
- dx034 9y agoBut they should be isolated incidences unless you have a systematic problem. One chef treating meat incorrectly can cause issues in one restaurant but not across the country. What Chipotle experienced was more than what you'd expect to happen in well-run restaurants that prepare everything themselves.
- awj 9y agoThat might be part of it. Plenty of other restaurants need (at the least) experienced cooks who probably would have gotten bounced out if they couldn't keep food safety more or less in order. A lot of it, I would guess, is simple scale. There's like 800 more Chipotle restaurants than Chili's, and I'd be damn sure the volume of meals coming out of each one is skewed far towards Chipotle as well.
- joezydeco 9y agoYour average Chili's kitchen is more automated than a Chipotle. http://www.middleby.com/midmarsh/PressReleases/Brinker-9_12_13.pdf http://www.middleby.com/midmarsh/PressReleases/Brinker-9_12_...
- barsonme 9y agoI mean, if my experiences are anything, it's because people don't care enough. At fat food joints you've got a bunch of high school and college kids who want to get off and party or get off and finish their mounting homework. It's not willful, just part of being 17/18/19 at an "unimportant" job. We had some adult-adults who worked there as well, and it was a night and day difference. Again, it's not willful or malicious, just laziness.
- squid_ca 9y ago> At fat food joints I don't know if that was intentional or not, but I like it! :)
- mrguyorama 9y agoAlso, when you are only paid $6 after taxes for every hour you work, why should you care? The company doesn't value you enough to care.
- barsonme 9y agoEh, I agree and disagree. It's difficult to care when you're not paid a lot and other similar jobs are dime a dozen, but morally I can't say it's right. And, really, I have a difficult time believing 16/17/18/19 year olds are going to put in a lot of extra effort flipping burgers, even if they're paid $10 or $15 an hour. Kids are kids, I was one too.
- mrguyorama 9y agoRight, but if the company wanted to focus on quality, then it's their fault for hiring kids or otherwise setting wages at a point where only kids can really afford to work there
- barsonme 9y agoTotal agreement on that point.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- twoodfin 9y agoAnd alas the barbacoa at least hasn’t been half as good as when it was store prepared. I understand why Chipotle has shifted focus so dramatically to food safety, but they’ve taken their eye off the ball on quality. My local shop has even had trouble getting the formerly routinely delicious rice cooked properly. I assume this is because of demands for a much tighter preparation schedule and serving window.
- jeffdubin 9y ago2019 = Order via speech recognition 2020 = Automated kitchen systems prepare ingredients 2021 = Burrito preparation via robotics 2021 = End-to-end order fulfillment without human involvement Just a matter of time before raw ingredients are lab grown and harvested by robots. Not too long ago, this was pure fantasy. Only now is it starting to look inevitable, for better or for worse.
- e_b 9y agoIt's still pure fantasy.
- nyolfen 9y agoevery one of the constituent parts presently exist, if in early forms. i think his timetable is far too compressed though.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoThere is a small chance that we will see something like Star Trek food replicators in our lifetime.
- throwaway7645 9y agoDo you mean matter replication (no we won't as this violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle similar to the transporter), or something akin to a very complex vending machine that can make things from Ramen to Fajitas?
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoThe latter, a very fancy food printer.
- sergers 9y agoVoice based ordering is already available through Alexa and their iPhone app, cmg just behind the times
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- kitchenworker 9y agoOne of the reasons Taco Bell has been so successful is the separation between POS and prep line. We know everything that happens, and generally when, in sequence. Chipotle is missing tons of data with their on demand prep model. I'm not sure Niccol is going to like their lack of basic metrics. Source: work on the restaurant ops software
- joezydeco 9y agoTruth. And if you see scales suddenly show up at CMG stores, you'll know what's up.