Adventures in Procurement

In the last article, we went over the personal and professional development of learning a new language and cultural integration, building relationships, and working to set up the protein supply chain for Chipotle in France. In this next installment, we’ll go over completing the supply chain of ingredients, packaging, and in-house testing.

With the relationships built to purchase the very best meats available in France, I set off to secure the other items needed to offer a complete menu. When setting up the UK market, we built a relationship with an importer that would bring shipments of branded packaging over from the US each quarter. The packaging would then go to our broad liner who also supplied the produce needed in our kitchens. This broad liner had an exotic foods division, and their buyers would frequently visit Rungis Market in the outskirts of Paris to buy black truffles, cheeses, and many other items unique to France. I joined them on a purchasing trip and had my mind blown on seeing from the inside what it takes to get quality ingredients to restaurants and grocery stores in France.

Les Halles, the original wholesale market that supplied Parisians with ingredients was begun in the 10th century and grew and evolved until 1969 when they could no longer handle the demands within the 10 acres available. In a feat of incredible logistics, the market was moved (overnight!) to Rungis, a 570-acre property on the south side of Paris near Orly Airport with minimal negative impact to operations. Rungis supplies Paris, France, and the globe with some of the best ingredients available and is one of the largest in the world; second only to Central de Abasto in Mexico City. This place is huge!?

At 3am, when the market is at full steam, the buyers and I took tours of the Dairy Hall, the Fish Hall, the Produce Hall, the Flower Hall, and the Protein Hall. To say this place has everything is an understatement. We met with vendors and explained what I was trying to accomplish as I had done with the beef, chicken, and pork folks. Lots of hmms and mmms. Talking with them about the relationships I built with the protein suppliers gave me a lot of clout but they were still suspicious. I fondly remember one interaction with a dairy vendor - Chipotle uses sour cream in their burritos, bowls, and tacos but the usual Daisy brand wasn’t available. You can find Crème Fraiche all over France, but I needed sour cream. The vendor looks me dead in the eyes and says, “Leave it in the sun for a day, it’ll sour”. Quelle blague! Crème Fraiche it was but we didn’t leave it in the sun.

During the visit, we encountered a supplier that runs ingredients and packaging to many restaurants in Paris. He was building his business and asked if he could take on the logistics of bringing the packaging in from the UK, source the produce and dairy, and deliver to the restaurant. Absolutely! A nearly one-stop shop.

At the end of our visit to Rungis, and with all vendors secured, we stopped for “lunch” at 9am. Lunch consisted of foie gras on toast topped with a fig compote and washed down with a 1999 Chateau d’Yquem. Another pinch me moment. None of this could have been done over the phone or via email. As I mentioned before, to do business well here, you’ve got to be present, engaged, and build trusting relationships.

Shortly after the Rungis trip, I began to receive samples of beef and pork to test cook in-house at my home since we didn’t have a functioning kitchen open yet. I learned that the French butcher their meats differently than what I was accustomed to, and they do so in an incredibly efficient way and with little to no waste. I explained the cuts we needed for the beef; brisket, chuck, and sirloin, and for pork; shoulder. Chicken was already good to go.

I’m at home one day when I receive a call from a delivery driver asking what the name of my business was. I explained I’m in a private residence to which he replied “d’accord…”. A few minutes later, a refrigerated box truck shows up on my one-way street. We exchange pleasantries and he opens the back of the truck. To my astonishment, there are three full sides of pork to be delivered to me. I was expecting a few pieces of shoulder not a few sides! So I hike the sides on my shoulders and turn to go in the house and see the driver of a car waiting behind the truck with their eyes bugging out of their head. They were just as amazed as me! Since I didn’t have nearly enough space to store the meat in a fridge or freezer, I had to act fast to get it broken down and into my friends and neighbors’ homes. Luckily, my neighbor across the street grew up as a butcher’s son so I reached out for assistance. He quickly dropped off his meeting citing he had a pork emergency. The attendees understood. We made quick work of breaking down the sides into cuts of shoulder, butt, loin, belly, ribs and ham and we started calling our friends. And they came running! Zero waste and some very happy family meals in the neighborhood that week.

For the beef testing, I had to experiment with several cuts to get the right one for cooking barbacoa. In the US, we’d use chuck and brisket of the shoulder area. In France, the shoulder is broken down into six different, unique cuts. We needed to have the right amount of intramuscular fat so that when it was cooked the final product would be tender and juicy and easy to shred by hand. Thankfully, in addition to feeding my wife and son a ton of my “experiments”, my friend John Krueger (and Chipotle enthusiast) would come over to assist with the tasting of what we needed to ensure we had the right cut and seasoning to best create the barbacoa standard within Chipotle.

These moments are forever etched in my mind and are now part of my DNA. It was a thrill to have direct contact with the vendors, suppliers, and food, and being trusted with doing whatever it took to build the supply chain and ensure we were building the brand with something we could be incredibly proud of. There’s empowerment, there’s ownership, and then there’s the intrinsic need to do good. Food is powerful like that. Nourishing.

Check out Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation episode at Les Halles.