Daniel Vasquez flips a mean burrito bowl. And now the whole world knows.
Since his bosses at Chipotle posted a video to their Instagram account of Vasquez looking effortlessly cool while impressively flipping a burrito bowl at the Frederick location on Patrick Street, the 18-year-old has become an internet sensation. Over the past five days, the video has been viewed nearly 640,000 times and received nearly 2,000 likes.
“I had no idea it was going to be as big as it was going to be,” says Vasquez, who seems happily nonplussed by his unexpected fame.
Vasquez says he learned his technique, which involves a nonchalant flip, twist and seal, all without spilling so much as a smidgen of lettuce, bean or whatever else one gets in a burrito bowl, from a co-worker at a different eatery.
“He would do it so casually, and I was, like, ‘Yeah, that’s so cool.’ And then, after he left, I was just trying it on my own,” Vasquez says. “Eventually, I got it down — it wasn’t too hard.
“No one thought it was a big deal,” he says. “I would just do it.” Such nonchalance, of course, is the essence of cool.
Awhile ago, however, two guys came in, Vasquez says, and were seriously impressed. “They were like, ‘Whoa, that’s so cool.’ Most people just give me a compliment, but these guys wanted to record it.”
Soon, the corporate folks at Chipotle got a look, and asked if he’d mind if they put it out there on Instagram. He said sure, and as Vasquez puts it, “the rest is history.”
Vasquez, who’s studying audio production at Frederick Community College, says people keep asking him how it feels to be famous. He’s not really sure how to answer them.
“It doesn’t feel like I’m famous,” he says with a laugh. “It just feels funny that something I did that I don’t even think about that often has become so popular.”