Chipotle Wants You to Know That Its Sick Employees Now Stay at Home, Thanks

The chain is also preparing to roll out quesadillas

Under former Taco Bell exec Brian Niccol, it looks like Chipotle has bounced back from its various food poisoning scandals and their attendant bad press. Bloomberg has some analysis on the turnaround, and the steps Chipotle took to fix its problems seem, well, pretty obvious. Chipotle now makes sure sick employees stay home (a solid strategy for ensuring a hygienic environment), and ensures there are enough forks in the stores. One further plan in the works is “giving customers things that they want,” in the form of adding quesadillas to Chipotle menus, something the chain is trialling on a limited basis right now.

And in other news...

• Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz hasn’t really bothered to release many policies yet in his presidential run, although he is now declaring that he doesn’t like socialists, and that he would veto bills that don’t have bipartisan support in Congress. Weird flex. [Miami Herald/WaPo]
• Spanish Michelin-starred restaurant Riff, which recently drew attention after a food poisoning incident resulting in the death of a customer, has reopened. Perhaps as a result, it now seems pretty easy to grab a reservation at the Valencia restaurant. [EFE]
• Now anyone can feel like an influencer juicing free stuff out of a corporation: Nissin Foods USA (known for the Cup Noodles brand) has a vending machine that will spit out freebies for people who post selfies to Instagram with the appropriate hashtags. [Food + Wine]
• If you were wondering what flavor of fruit juice corresponds to news about harassment lawsuits, a new stunt in Japan has you covered: a Harajuku juice bar is whipping up concoctions based on headlines of the day. Apparently the harassment one is pink and sparkly with cream on top, which doesn’t feel right. [Yahoo]
• Chef Jacques Pepin is the first chef to earn a lifetime achievement award from the Daytime Emmys, in recognition of his work on series like PBS’ Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. That puts him in the company of true luminaries like Judge Judy. [Variety]
• In the tamest Black Mirror timeline imaginable, you should soon be able to order Nutella via voice-activated assistants like Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa. [Digiday]
• The New Yorker documents the rise of coffee connoisseur culture — think of the kinds of people who attend competitive cupping events. [New Yorker]
• Food + Wine’s new podcast Communal Table is here: in the first episode, senior editor Kat Kinsman talks with Samin Nosrat of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat fame. [iTunes]

• All AM Intel Coverage [E]