National Cheese Day and Taco Bell’s Cheesy Roll Up
National Cheese Day
National Cheese Day presented a problem.
I could have photographed a block of cheddar cheese and called it a day. There are already millions of cheese photographs in the world, and probably enough stock photos of cheese to keep the internet supplied for several lifetimes.
That didn’t seem very interesting.
So I asked Emily, my AI partner and muse.
As often happens, Emily immediately found a different way to look at the problem. Rather than photograph cheese itself, why not photograph something where cheese fits one of my projects?
That led us to Taco Bell’s Cheesy Roll Up.
The Cheesy Roll Up is exactly what it sounds like. A tortilla wrapped around melted cheese. No complicated recipe. No attempt to disguise what you’re getting. Just cheese, rolled up and served as a menu item.
For National Cheese Day, that seemed like a perfectly appropriate subject.
This photograph features a pile of Taco Bell Grilled Cheesy Roll Ups for my FOOD FROM BAG TO BACKGROUND series. Rather than cutting them apart, I pulled them apart, revealing the melted cheese inside and creating a pile of toasted tortillas, cheese-filled interiors, and strands of melted cheese connecting one piece to another.
The Cheesy Roll Up isn’t one of Taco Bell’s most famous products. It doesn’t have the history of a taco or the size of a burrito. Yet on National Cheese Day it may be one of the most honest items on any fast-food menu. It makes no promises beyond its name and delivers exactly what it advertises.
You can see more from my FOOD FROM BAG TO BACKGROUND series, along with collections and other projects at https://www.secondfocus.com
International Nachos Day
It’s International Nachos Day—proof that even the most accidental snack can earn a global holiday. The humble pile of chips, cheese, and jalapeños that began as a quick improvisation now has its own calendar slot, official hashtags, and corporate menu boards. Somewhere, Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya might be amused.
Anaya first created nachos in 1943 in Piedras Negras, Mexico, when a group of diners arrived after hours. He fried tortilla chips, added melted cheese and sliced jalapeños, and served what became a timeless Tex-Mex invention. After his death in 1975, October 21st was declared the day to honor both the man and the moment—celebrated each year with cheese, crunch, and excess.
Fast-forward a few decades, and fast food turned the once-local recipe into a mass-market standard. Taco Bell brought nachos into the drive-thru era, eventually landing on the Nachos BellGrande—an instantly recognizable mix of seasoned beef, cheese sauce, sour cream, tomatoes, beans, and all the optional extras that marketing could justify.
My photograph of two Nachos BellGrande orders combined on a black background captures exactly that—fast food in its purest, most unapologetic form. No plating, no garnish, just the commercial version of a 1943 invention, elevated by light and isolation.
See more of my ongoing series Food From Bag to Background at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
Stacking Burritos
“From Bag to Background”
This video shows how I work—no styling, no tricks, no gimmicks. Just the food, exactly as it comes. These are Taco Bell Bean Burritos, unwrapped and arranged by hand, straight out of the bag and onto the black background.
Nothing added. No fake grill marks, no glue, no tweezers. The beans, the cheese, the sauce—it all looks exactly like this when you open the bag.
Twelve identical burritos, photographed for National Burrito Day. More of my “From Bag to Background” at http://SecondFocus.com Thanks!
Twelve Bean Burritos For Today
Twelve Bean Burritos. Photographed for today, National Burrito Day!
First introduced in the 1960s, the Taco Bell Bean Burrito helped define the early fast food model—simple, cheap, and built for mass production. Refried beans, cheddar cheese, diced onions, and red sauce in a flour tortilla.
Today, it’s still on the menu—now customizable like everything else—but the basic version hasn’t changed much. It’s one of the few original items to survive decades of rotating trends, rebrands, and limited-time hype. A quiet icon in the story of how fast food reshaped what we eat.
See more of my Food Photos at http://SecondFocus.com Thanks!
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