Steve Ells changed the restaurant industry once when he founded Chipotle in 1993. His idea for fast, freshly prepared food became the model for today’s “fast casual” format. It’s a story he told when he was first on the show back in 2017. Now, he hopes to revolutionize the industry again with a new chain of small, highly automated, vegan restaurants called Kernel.
This week on How I Built This Lab, Steve Ells returns to reflect on stepping away from the company he spent decades building and how his concern for climate change inspired his new restaurant concept. Plus, how he thinks that robotic restaurants could be good for workers, customers, owners and the environment.
This episode was produced by Chris Maccini with music by Ramtin Arablouei.
It was edited by John Isabella with research by Casey Herman. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.
You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
ECKO UNLTD and COMPLEX: Marc Ecko
Advice Line with Mauren Kelly of Tarte Cosmetics
Concept2 Rowing Machines: Dick and Peter Dreissigacker
Advice Line with Tom Rinks of Sun Bum
Therabody: Jason Wersland
Advice Line with Andrew Abraham of Orgain
nutpods: Madeline Haydon
Advice Line with Gary Erickson of Clif Bar
Listen Now: The Competition
Twitter, Medium and Blogger: Ev Williams
Advice Line with Pete Maldonado of Chomps
Dhar Mann Studios: Dhar Mann
Advice Line with Fawn Weaver of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey
YouTube Creator and Cookbook Author: Rosanna Pansino
Healing through food with Danielle Walker of Against All Grain (2022)
CrunchLabs: Mark Rober
AI is smarter than you think with Shane Legg of Google DeepMind
Mythical: Rhett and Link
Less competition, more creation with Renée Mauborgne
Whole30: Melissa Urban
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Planet Money
Freakonomics Radio
The Daily
Kids Of The Future
Best of Storytime RNZ