NEW YORK – The Wall Street Journal revealed how much of Chipotle’s ingredients are made fresh inside the stores or delivered to the restaurants, as well as how the company is balancing fresh ingredients with food costs and menu prices.

“At Chipotle, guacamole is made from scratch in each of its almost 1,800 outlets. Tortillas are fried into chips, then doused in fresh-squeezed lime and sprinkled liberally with salt. Onions, cilantro, lettuce and jalapeños are chopped into small pieces. Cheese is shredded,” writes the news source, adding that other products are delivered from a central kitchen to save costs and ensure a consistent product. Once inside the restaurants, cooked beef and pork in plastic bags are reheated in water baths and shredded by hand.

Steve Ells, founder and CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., told the Wall Street Journal that navigating the fine line between serving fresh food and keeping prices low is a constant challenge for the company. Last year, Chipotle’s food costs were about 35% of revenue, which is a level more on par with fine dining than fast casual, notes the news source, adding that the company’s sales have increased each year for more than 20 years.

To help find a balance between quality and costs, Chipotle often makes subtle recipe changes. For example, notes the news source, the company no longer use pre-chopped tomatoes shipped in plastic bags from a central kitchen in Chicago to make salsa. Beginning late last year, Chipotle staff have been putting fresh tomatoes into top-loading dicing machines each morning to make a better-tasting and fresh salsa.

“Is it as good as cutting with a knife on a cutting board? No,” Ells commented, but said that chopping the tomatoes by hand would increase labor costs.

Each Chipotle employee is also trained on “the art of portioning,” notes the news source, with the help of photographs showing them properly chopped salad lettuce, flakes of cilantro, shreds of slow cooked beef and pork, and how many ounces to serve of meat, rice and cheese.

Emerging fast-casual chains such as Washington, D.C.-based Sweetgreen Inc., a make-your-own salad chain with 31 locations, is serving up “sustainably sourced, local, seasonal ingredients cooked from scratch,” writes the news source.

But unlike Chipotle, Sweetgreen changes its menu in each city to highlight local and seasonal foods. It’s an “operational challenge,” according to Nicolas Jammet, co-CEO. However, the company has found that customers want “proof” their food is made onsite from scratch. The news source writes that Sweetgreen’s new restaurants have entirely open kitchens so customers can see every step of the cooking process, “We aren’t hiding anything,” says Jammet. 

But don’t count QSRs out just yet. McDonald’s is experimenting with customization, notes the news source, with touchscreen ordering that will allow customers to create their own burger. Sonic is promoting the use of real ice cream, and Wendy’s CMO Brandon Solano commented that the QSR never freezes beef for burgers and each day chops fresh romaine and iceberg lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes for salad.