Chipotle has paired up with RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan to celebrate its dedication to using real ingredients through the art of music, and basically, you can get a free custom song and a free burrito right from your phone.
The program, called SAVOR.WAVS, reimagines each of the 51 ingredients used to create Chipotle’s menu as a sound. Those sounds are then put together to create a melody. So, in short, you can go online to SAVORWAVS.com and input your signature order to create a custom song with graphics that react in real-time to the movement of your phone.
Oh yeah, and once you do that, you can get a buy one, get one free burrito deal. Looks like you and your roommate are getting half-off burritos! Of course, if you want extra good karma, you can nix the Venmo request and actually give someone the free food you just earned.
Why Music and Why RZA?
RZA, a famous multi-platinum hip-hop artist and founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, is also a bit of a foodie.
“I’ve always believed food, like music, has the power to change our day and even shape our world,” RZA said in a press release. “SAVOR.WAVS continues to challenge us in how we think about food, what’s real and what’s responsible.”
He said he started by coming up with unique sounds for each ingredient with his 10-year-old and 18-year-old sons, both burrito lovers. They started with beans, which is set to sound like the bass.
Once each sound was decided on, he worked with an orchestra of about 51 instruments (because 51 ingredients) and they started with the rhythm section. Of course, he noted, the team had guac and chips at every work session (uh, same), and by the end, it took about 70 people to compose the whole thing
“So when you put together your order, you put together about 70 different musicians,” RZA said at a press event.
Re-Re-Re-Remix
As a vegan, RZA said he usually orders a vegetarian burrito (filled with sofritas, brown rice, black beans, roasted-chili corn salsa, fresh tomato salsa and guac), so his order sounds like a mix of the bass, flute, and viola, amongst other instruments. But of course, in classic RZA-style, he used his melody to produce a remix featuring Raekwon, Method Man and Ghostface.
Additionally, Chipotle recruited other artists like The Head and the Heart, Awolnation, GRiZ and PANG! to remix their orders, each using their own style. You can find their songs on Spotify, on SoundCloud and on SAVORWAVS.com.
“It is safe to eat at Chipotle”
Post the days of the infamous E.Coli outbreaks, Chipotle has put an emphasis on using only fresh ingredients, minus added colors, flavors or industrial additives. Just last March, the college-staple announced it removed its last bit of preservatives in its food, thanks to a makeover on the tortillas.
Mark Crumpacker, the chief marketing and development officer at Chipotle, said in a press release that SAVOR.WAVS supports the restaurant’s commitment to its 51 real ingredients. He added that “as a parallel to the way we cook, RZA used only natural instruments, and composed them such that each unique combination works beautifully together.”
However, just yesterday Chipotle had to close one of its restaurants in Virginia due to people getting sick with the norovirus. According to Business Insider, at least 13 people suffered from fever, vomiting and “violent stomach cramps” after dining there over the weekend.
Jim Mardsen, Chipotle’s executive director of food safety, told Business Insider that they were working with health authorities to find the cause and a resolution. Chipotle planned to sanitize the location and reopen shortly after.
Further, Mardsen said, "The reported symptoms are consistent with norovirus. Norovirus does not come from our food supply, and it is safe to eat at Chipotle."
The Sound of a Steak Burrito
All in all, when looking at the work put into creating each order’s custom sound, it’s impressive. I can appreciate what they're doing here — ingredients work together to make up our food, and similar to cooking, each instrument in a song complements each other to create a melody.
I wouldn’t go so far to say that the tune created by my steak burrito will be added to my pregame playlist anytime soon, but it’s definitely a new way of looking at my food. SAVOR.WAVS gives me another way to represent myself using food, adding to the saying, “you are what you eat.”