Even a Michelin star chef has to sell takeout these days

which were sometimes sent to his personal email address. Creating a delivery operation would have required a time-consuming overhaul of the menu. It just wasn’t worth the effort. But because of the coronavirus, Steele has had to make some compromises to stay in business.

He has signed up with Grubhub and Caviar, another delivery service. He has created a menu that eschews complex, hard-to-deliver items like tuna tostada in favour of homey offerings like chicken — a food he never thought he would serve.

Steele has also had to get used to seeing delivery drivers mishandle his carefully assembled dishes. And he has learned to package certain orders in foil containers so the dishes do not have to be removed from their delivery vessels to be heated in the oven.

“Before, we were a Michelin star restaurant where people would have a bunch of mezcals and hang out for a while and spend money,” Steele said. “Now we’re sending chips and salsa and soup to people.” Before the coronavirus made delivery a necessity, restaurants across the country — from mom-and-pops to major chains like McDonald’s — were slowly beginning to reinvent themselves as logistics operations, using software to track orders on different delivery platforms or experimenting with containers and menu items designed to travel. Now, what began as a steady evolution is taking place at warp speed, as even chefs and owners who had long resisted delivery, like Steele, adapt to the pandemic.

One day this month, Grubhub added more than four times as many restaurants to its app as it had on its previous record day.

Demand has also spiked for Ordermark, a company in Los Angeles that provides hardware to help restaurants manage delivery orders. Last year, an average of roughly 300 restaurants signed up in a month. In March, more than 1,000 have joined.

“Oftentimes, the restaurants weren’t set up for delivery — they don’t really have menus that are designed for takeout or delivery,” said Alex Canter, the chief executive of Ordermark. “They’re having to quickly make adjustments. And for those restaurants, it’s a life-or-death situation.” Even as deliveries have ballooned the last few years, their quality has been inconsistent.

Often, the food arrives cold and soggy, in ripped paper bags or crumpled pizza boxes. Many restaurants consider delivery apps a necessary evil because of the large third-party commissions. And some restaurants lack the infrastructure to execute a successful delivery business.

Last year, online orders accounted for about 20 percent of Chipotle Mexican Grill’s sales. That was partly because two of the chain’s most popular items — burritos and burrito bowls — travel relatively well. Its tacos, however, are a different story.

“If they’re all wrapped together in foil and put at the bottom of the bag, they can get a little mashed up,” said Chris Brandt, the chief marketing officer at Chipotle. So for the past few months, a team of about 10 employees has worked on developing improved packaging for the tacos, collaborating with experts from the fashion and footwear industries.

Not long ago, it would have been hard to imagine a burrito chain’s seeking advice from shoe executives. But the rise of digital ordering has spawned a whole universe of delivery consultants and entrepreneurs.