A Voorhees resident has been crowned Pancheros’ Queso Queen. She ordered queso 235 times in the past year.
Marynelle Milanese said burrito bowls at Pancheros have long been a way to bond with her husband's family, especially her mother-in-law, Debbie Milanese.
Marynelle Milanese didn’t pick up when Pancheros Mexican Grill called her this month. She thought a message crowning her the nation’s first “Queso Queen” was surely a scam.
But when the Mexican fast food chain followed her on Instagram, the Voorhees resident realized it was true: Milanese, 33, is the first woman dubbed queso royalty. Her family, which runs Milanese Brothers Pizzeria in Stratford, couldn’t believe it either.
“We all still just can’t get over it, that this is even a thing,” Milanese said.
Pancheros honors its rewards member who buys the most queso in a given year on Sept. 20, National Queso Day, with a trophy, a personal party at the chain, and a prize box — featuring merch, a helping of burrito coupons, and a signed poster of retired WWE wrestler Big E, who has a partnership with the brand.
She also gets free queso for a year.
Pancheros debuted the award in 2019, and Milanese is the second New Jerseyan to win it. She bought queso 235 times since last September and has visited the chain 434 times over the past six years.
The trophy, which calls Milanese the “Queso Cup Champion,” currently sits on her entertainment center at home, five minutes down the road from her local Pancheros in Voorhees, Camden County. Milanese started eating at the chain 12 years ago, when her husband’s family introduced her to “Panch” and gave her a lifetime love of the burrito bowl, which she orders with cilantro rice, pinto beans, extra steak, queso (of course), and sauteed veggies.
More than 200 queso orders might look like a lot in a year, but Milanese has a reason for buying so much.
Debbie Milanese, 63, is somewhat of a queso queen herself. Milanese’s mother-in-law, who lives with Milanese and her husband, can’t stomach most foods due to various health conditions.
“Not everything sits right with her,” Milanese said. “But Pancheros always does.”
Milanese orders queso for the both of them, and they split it, since it’s something her mother-in-law can enjoy. Plus, it gives the pair something to do.
“It has always brought us together,” she said.
With Debbie’s birthday coming up in November, Milanese said she hopes to turn the 20-person Pancheros party, a perk of her queso win, into a family get-together.
Pancheros has about 70 locations across 12 states, including 10 in New Jersey and three in Pennsylvania. The chain has more than a million rewards members.
Last year, Josh Davis of Iowa won the Queso King trophy for the third time with 326 queso orders, less than he ordered in 2023 and 2021 for his previous queso victories.
In 2022, a resident of Bedminster, Somerset County, became Pancheros’ first New Jersey Queso King with 230 orders.
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