Chipotle Employees Chop Most Of Its Ingredients By Hand, Except These

Our love for Chipotle is as constant as the tides, even if skimpy portion sizes caused a 2024 social media trend of walking out of restaurants midorder and, that same year, the chain dropped poorly-received news that menu prices would increase to keep pace with inflation. You can try to talk smack about the burrito chain, but the food is always craveably fresh. In fact, Chipotle makes all the food in its restaurants with just 53 whole foods. Call us crazy, but we think we can taste the difference.

All those ingredients have to be prepped to become your rice bowl, and Chipotle employees, astoundingly, chop almost everything by hand. The onions in your pico, the cilantro in your salsa, the avo for the guac, and most of the proteins are all cut the old-fashioned way, with a knife. This was true when Wall Street Journal took a look at the inner workings of Chipotle in 2015, and, as per multiple user claims from the social media site Reddit, it's still how things are done today. 

There are just a few notable exceptions: tomatoes are either delivered already chopped or run through a food processor, cheese is fresh-grated by machine, and the corn for the corn salsa is already processed when it arrives. Chicken and steak are cut in-store, while the carnitas, sofrita, and barbacoa arrive already prepped and ready to be shredded. Beans, too, are prepared off-site.

According to the Chipotle employees of Reddit, who gave us a peek into the laborious prelims involved in readying the store for opening, between two and four employees are scheduled in the morning for prep duty, depending on the store's volume. Around 40 pounds of onions are sliced and diced, the former for the fajita veggies, and the latter for pico and guac. Thirty to 40 heads of lettuce are shredded, and dozens of pounds of both bell peppers and jalapeños are processed. Somewhere in the ballpark of 300 avocados are cut, scooped, and mashed for that ever-popular side, guacamole. (No wonder the company charges extra!) As the clock ticks closer to the time when the doors open for customers, some of the prep staff will rotate over to the grill to start cooking meats. 

Sure, it might be easier if Chipotle switched over to ingredients that were all processed by machines or shipped in already prepped off-site, but the work that employees undertake each morning to cut, dice, and chop dozens of pounds of produce leads to food that customers love. When you hit Taco Bell, for instance, the food may be fire, but it's hella processed — TBell guacamole adds mustard to its long ingredient list. Next time you're swinging by Chipotle to pick up your mobile order, spare a thought for the manpower that went into your entrée, and appreciate the freshness and human touch.