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chipotle officially responds about the garden blend
10January 10th, 2010chipotle, LA restaurantshey vegans, i know i have been updating you on the situation with the gardein meat or “garden blend” at chipotle in regards to which grill it’s cooked on, and most of our info has been coming from phone calls and conversations with the nyc staff. well finally, someone who works at chipotle has taken the time to send an official written response that will hopefully clear up any confusion. here ya go:
Hi everyone,
I’m a Chipotle employee, and I just wanted to clarify a few things that this blog posting and a few of these comments discuss.
Most importantly, with regard to Garden Blend, we are still normally cooking our Garden Blend on our main grill at both of our two test restaurants (Chelsea West and DuPont Circle). That said, we do definitely scrape our grill clean every time in order to minimize any contact it may potentially have with non-vegan ingredients. And it’s true that Garden Blend is prepared on the same grill as our meats, but it is prepared separately, and when meat and Garden Blend are on the grill together (something that is unavoidable at times), we take great care to make sure there is sufficient separation between them to avoid potential cross-contact as much as possible.
Our general manager at Chelsea West did however communicate to his team that we could cook Garden Blend in a separate pan if a customer made a special request for our Garden Blend to be prepared that way, but this is not currently a practical solution for our test restaurants, which is why it is not our normal method for cooking Garden Blend in this test. Additionally, that solution is not 100% cross-contact free either, given that the tongs, the holding pans, the serving spoons, etc., that we use for cooking and serving the Garden Blend are also used for handling meat items too throughout the day – although they are all cleaned thoroughly between uses…
I hope these answers help. We don’t mean to let anyone down in any way, so I am sorry if what I say causes offense to anyone, but we’d rather make sure our customers or potential customers know the truth. We do also appreciate you guys taking an active interest in our company and in Garden Blend and thank you for allowing me to post these things on your blog.
Sincerely,
Joe Stupp
Chipotleso there you have it. if they clean the grill in between use, i don’t think there’s much we can bitch about. and if you want to be uber-vegan, just go ahead and ask them to cook it in a separate pan. this is great news all the way around, and i hope garden blend comes to los angeles ASAP.
Tags: chipotle, gardein
9 responses to “chipotle officially responds about the garden blend” 
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Thanks for sharing this info.
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This is very nice of them to take the time to actually acknowledge the situation. I am one of those “uber-vegans” though, so I wouldn’t be eating the garden blend until there is not cross contamination. Of course, I don’t eat out at restaurants anyway.
Thank you to Chipotle though for taking the effort to help us out!
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Stephanie January 10th, 2010 at 14:12
Thanks, this is good info, and I’m impressed at Chipotle’s openness. I completely understand people’s concerns, but would be afraid to make too much of a fuss about this while it in such an early phase of testing. I don’t want them to think it’s too much trouble and throw out the idea altogether! It’s definitely a dilemma.
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Hailey January 10th, 2010 at 20:19
I love this post! Thanks so much to Chipotle for finally clearing it up. Joes Stupp deserves a big wet kiss.
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Rommer January 10th, 2010 at 21:04
I WANT CHIPOTLE GARDEN BLEND IN LA! Did anyone hear that?! Come on.
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Elliot January 10th, 2010 at 21:08
Thanks Chipotle. This was a very admirable thing to do. Not only do you offer vegan things, but you clarify. Thank you from the bottom of my godless heart.
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Grant June 15th, 2010 at 13:39
They got it at the Woodland Hills location on Topanga Cyn Blvd. I tried it yesterday and it was delicious.
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