"chipotle" news and stories

Thinking about dressing up as Cheese Whiz for Halloween? Then you'll want to stop by Chipotle for a $2 burrito before you head out trick-or-treating.

Or make that a "Boorito." In its latest costume contest, Chipotle is encouraging you to dress up as the "most horrifying processed-food product" you can think of, or you can take one of their suggestions: chicken nuggets, canned pasta, frozen pizzas, hot dogs or lunch meats. (Good luck finding a bologna costume at your local costume shop.)

And what do you get for dressing up like a weenie? Essentially, about $4 off any Chipotle menu item.

Is it worth it? Maybe you can't put a price on a social conscience. The contest is ostensibly about highlighting the "horrors of processed foods," which, according to the chain's website, "fail to provide key nutrients that are important to overall nutrition and, along with excessive portion sizes, are often related to the increased incidence of obesity and diabetes in America."

It's no coincidence that Chipotle bills its "food with integrity" as the healthier antidote to ordinary fast food.

Lame PR stunt or goodwill gesture? It's hard to tell, but the company is donating up to $1 million of proceeds from the contest to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. And if you take your picture in costume at your local Chipotle and post it on the company's website, you'll be registered to win up to $2,500. Not so cheesy, after all.

That should more than cover the cost of dry cleaning your Chicken McNugget ensemble.

From local spots like Chicago's Wow Bao restaurant to national chains like Chipotle, restaurants are turning to Twitter to interact directly with unhappy customers.

The micro-blogging site is letting customers and restaurants interact in new ways, and letting restaurants react to customer complaints with lightening speed, the Associated Press reported.

Celebrity chef Graham Elliot, judge on Fox's "MasterChef" reality show and owner of the Graham Elliot restaurant in Chicago, told the AP Twitter is helping tear down the wall between restaurants and their customers. His Twitter feed discusses cooking and his restaurant, fantasy football and what music he should play in the restaurant.

"Most of the time people just want to be heard," he said. "It's the democratization of fine dining."

Products like tomato paste or chipotle en abobo add essential depth of flavor to many dishes, but most recipes only call for one or two tablespoons at a time.

Despite Chipotle's admirable self-proclaimed "F.W.I. (Food With Integrity)" philosophy, which drives them to buy items only from environmentally-conscious farms, the end result still looks like plain ol' fast food. This is where Fancy Fast Food comes in!

Find the "recipe" for Chicken Chipotlioli after the jump.

Greenopia has made being green a little easier with the launch of its updated Green Fast Food Guide.

The guide uses Greenopia's 4-Leaf rating system to evaluate the environmental impact and healthy dining characteristics of 23 fast-food restaurant chains including Chipotle, McDonald's, Starbucks, Taco Bell and Sonic.

At the top of the list, the only to get 4-Leaf ratings, are burger joint EVOS, Le Pain Quotidien and Pizza Fusion. Chipotle got two leaves and McDonald's got one, the only major international fast-food burger restaurant to receive any leaves.

"A really good proxy for the overall greenness of a fast-food chain is really what type of food they're serving – if they have organic products or if they try to incorporate local into their products or use fair-trade coffee," Doug Mazeffa, research director for Greenopia, told Slashfood.