The Fast-Food Gimmick That Became an Unlikely Muse for Chefs
In 2020, Fernando Strohmeyer was scrolling through Reddit in the back of Aunt Ginny's, a dive bar in Ridgewood, Queens, when a video of someone making a homemade Crunchwrap Supreme caught his eye.
It didn't matter that he had never tasted the Taco Bell original. Recipes for the fast-food staple have spread online like open-source code. Soon, he was making one, too.
From his small kitchen at Aunt Ginny's, Mr. Strohmeyer serves six-sided wraps that are browned on both sides and filled with the 14-hour pernil he learned to make from his Puerto Rican mother. His version — 'the Crispwrap Ultimate' — is considerably thicker than the source material, with a cross-section that looks more like your actual aunt's seven-layer dip.
'As long as you have that crunchy thing in the middle and you know how to fold it, you can put anything in there,' said Mr. Strohmeyer, 44.
Introduced by Taco Bell as a special on June 22, 2005, the Crunchwrap Supreme wildly outperformed company expectations, becoming the fastest-selling menu item in the fast-food chain's history. Twenty years later, it is as much a novelty food as a playful framework for chefs. They reinterpret its nostalgic layers — ground beef, nacho cheese, a tostada shell, lettuce, tomato and sour cream enrobed by a 12-inch flour tortilla — with ingredients that are deeply personal.
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