Could you eat the same thing for 473 days straight?

Dillon Wareham has, and he is on his way to breaking a record and just won a national contest.

Wareham is a Mobile resident, social media content creator and Chipotle superfan who just won a Chipotle Taste Test national social media competition. The brand teamed up with TikTok superstar food critic Keith Lee to find the tastiest orders featuring the brand’s new chicken al pastor.

What was the winning combination you ask? Wareham switched up the protein in his regular (473 days strong) order with the new chicken al pastor. The order: a burrito bowl with chicken al pastor, white rice, fresh tomato salsa, extra cheese and light shredded romaine lettuce.

The order caught the attention of Lee who rated the entrée a power score of 9 out of 10. Chipotle is now featuring Dillon’s order on the Chipotle app and chipotle.com for a limited time.

WHAT DID WAREHAM WIN?

The grand prize was “Chipotle for a year,” or in his case, 52 days of meals and his bowl featured on the app, all of which Wareham was excited for, but his favorite part of the prize was who reviewed his bowl.

“Just Keith Lee reviewing my bowl is crazy to me,” he said. “When they were like Keith Lee is going to be reviewing your bowl, I was like what!”

For anyone out of the know, Keith Lee has become a TikTok superstar with a mission to put a spotlight on mom-and-pop restaurants in his hometown of Las Vegas.

He reviews the food and gives honest feedback and as his following has grown so has his impact on the restaurants. He has made national news several times in 2023. His legions of followers have flooded the previously empty restaurants he has reviewed.

Are you wondering why Wareham has eaten Chipotle for so many days and how? You aren’t alone and the answer isn’t as simple as you might think.

Five years ago, Wareham became a little concerned about the content his little brother was consuming on YouTube. He decided to use his big personality and clean Christian humor to make content he would be happy for his little brother or other young children to consume. That was five years ago.

“I just started posting random stuff. When I look back at it now it is so cringe. It is so horrible and makes me want to crawl in a hole,” Wareham laughed. “It is horrible but when I first started, I knew nothing about it. I bought a camera and just started filming random things and tried to be funny.”

Then in 2020 when the world was starting to shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he ventured into the world of TikTok.

“When TikTok came along, with working full time, it is a lot easier to do a 15 to 30-second video than it is to make something that is 10 minutes and edit it and all that stuff,” he said. “When I first started, I was just trying to be funny, and it wasn’t anything I was taking seriously. My initial thought of TikTok was if I could grow on there then maybe I could get more people over to my YouTube.”

With a need for daily content, Wareham decided to pull out his phone when he pulled into the Chipotle parking lot Dec. 12, 2021, and challenge himself to eat there every day for 30 days. The hope was to get noticed by Chipotle and get the elusive VIP card and a partnership to work together. After 30 days, he kept going but he didn’t hear from the brand until after he hit a year.

“My first contact with Chipotle was day 369. I went 369 days without contact, without a like, a hi or anything. That was tough. You start going crazy,” he said. “When I hit the year mark and they didn’t contact me I was like what is going on? Then day 369 they liked my year video and messaged me.”

In an email from Chipotle, they commented:

“Chipotle first noticed Dillion after he ate Chipotle every day for a year in pursuit of becoming a Chipotle VIP. In January 2023, Chipotle challenged Dillion to maintain his streak and eat at Chipotle for 1,000 days and he is currently on day 470. The brand sent Dillion a limited-edition stainless steel gift card to help him reach his goal. By winning the #ChipotleTasteTest challenge, Dillion’s dreams of becoming a Chipotle VIP are coming true.”

Wareham’s first goal is to beat the current record of 500 days set by a Tiffin, Ohio man named Bruce Wayne. Yes, that is his real name and there are photos of him online with a black mask and cape eating meal 500. Wayne broke a previous record of 425 straight days.

Since starting the challenge, Wareham has not missed a single day of eating Chipotle, which has required some planning ahead. Over the last 473 days (as of writing this article) Wareham has gone on a cruise, had surgery which required a hospital stay, welcomed a child into the world with his wife which required time spent in the hospital, suffered an illness that kept him home in bed and dealt with holidays that close the restaurant. Through it all, the cruise was the most challenging to figure out.

“The most stressful time for me was when we were going on a cruise. I was so stressed out. I didn’t know how I was going to do it. I knew I could buy four bowls for the cruise. My biggest fear was what if they don’t let me take them on the ship,” Wareham said.

The solution?

“I ended up putting them in a bag, wrapping them in clothes in my suitcase and sneaking them on,” he said with a laugh. “I had my bowls every day on the cruise. I am not one of those people to fake it. I wouldn’t have premade videos because that is just lying, and I am not about that life. I am not going to miss.”

His wife has been supportive through it all and has even served as his delivery person when he was in the hospital and ill at home.

WHAT IS NEXT?

His goal is to become a full-time content creator but to do so he needs to continue to build his following on TikTok and Instagram and turn those followers into consumers of his YouTube channel. With a full-time job and two small children at home, it is difficult to find the time to make videos, but one thing Wareham doesn’t lack is determination and persistence.

You can find Wareham across all social media platforms at @dillonwareham.