The loop closed in January 2026. Noah Chillingworth returned to Del Taco, the Lake Forest restaurant chain where he had already spent 15 years, this time with the title of chief marketing officer. He had been away for less than two years, leading marketing at Farmer Boys. In corporate life, a return can look like a correction. In Chillingworth's case, it reads more like a thesis: know the customer, know the kitchen, and know which old idea deserves another turn.
His assignment covers brand strategy, menu and promotional marketing, digital and loyalty platforms, guest insight, and systemwide initiatives. That list is less a marketing department than a map of the modern quick-service restaurant. The television spot and social post sit at the outer edge. Underneath are food costs, franchisee economics, training time, ingredient contracts, mobile behavior, and the precise moment a hungry person decides whether eight dollars feels like enough dinner.
Chillingworth has spent his career inside that decision. He began in Domino's field marketing in 1994, moved to Taco Bell as a field marketing director in 2004, joined Del Taco in 2009, and left for Farmer Boys in 2024. The brands changed. The work stayed close to the restaurant. A colleague from his Taco Bell years later praised his ability to keep both customers and field operators in mind, and to connect customer profit-and-loss realities to plans designed to produce profitable transactions.
The field is the brief
The phrase “field marketing” sounds modest. It is not. It is where a national promise meets local weather, media prices, competitors, franchisees, and the crew scheduled for lunch. Chillingworth spent the first 15 years of his career in that terrain at Domino's and Taco Bell. By the time he joined Del Taco, he had learned marketing from the outside in: start with what a restaurant can deliver and what a customer will actually do.
A 2019 trademark declaration offers an unusually granular view of his working method. Chillingworth described reviewing competitor product launches, store openings, advertising, press releases, leadership changes, sales trends, social posts, reviews, and customer feedback. Competitive intelligence was not a quarterly slide. It was steady observation, much of it rooted in Southern California, where Mexican quick service is both a large business and a local language.
- Field marketing at Domino's Pizza
- Field Marketing Director at Taco Bell
- Brand marketing, advertising and vice president of marketing at Del Taco
- Vice president and chief marketing officer at Farmer Boys
- Chief marketing officer at Del Taco
The accumulation matters. Restaurant marketing rewards repetition, but not sameness. Every promotion produces a result in traffic, ticket, margin, training friction, social response, or franchisee confidence. Thirty-two years creates a private archive of cause and effect. Chillingworth's public comments suggest that he stores those lessons in operational terms.
Our LTO strategy is not just ‘one and done.’ We have to factor in the investment in training and sourcing.Noah Chillingworth on limited-time offers
Nostalgia has a prep list
In April 2026, Del Taco brought back the Big Fat Taco, a toasted-flatbread favorite that customers had requested for years. The campaign also revived the atmosphere of 1990s collectible milk caps with Del Flipz, small pieces designed to be handled, traded, and remembered. It would be easy to call this nostalgia. Chillingworth's career suggests a more useful definition: nostalgia is customer research with a long half-life.
A beloved retired item arrives with proof of demand, but memory alone cannot run a kitchen. The ingredients must be sourced. Crew members must learn the build. The price must create trial and protect the operator. The window must be long enough for a curious customer to come back. Chillingworth has said premium-protein limited-time offers may run 12 to 16 weeks so guests can buy them several times and the brand can earn back its investments in sourcing and training.
That is a practical filter for creativity. An idea is not finished when it earns applause in a meeting. It has to travel through hundreds of restaurants without losing its point. The Big Fat Taco return used memory as the invitation and operations as the proof. The same logic appeared in the summer carnitas lineup and in the Burgertaco, a hybrid of two things Del Taco customers already understood: the Double Del cheeseburger and the Big Fat Taco.
This approach does not reject novelty. It anchors novelty in recognition. Chillingworth called the Burgertaco “unmistakably Del Taco.” That adjective does the real work. A menu can surprise without behaving like a stranger.
Value is a feeling with math underneath
Chillingworth's return came during a reset for Del Taco under new ownership. The chain had endured a difficult stretch, and the agenda included operational execution, traffic, loyalty, and renewed relevance. In May, Del Taco introduced more than ten value-menu items beginning at $1, plus larger bundles at $6.99 and $8.99. Chillingworth framed the move around guests who had become more intentional about spending but still wanted food that felt satisfying.
The word “felt” is important. Value is calculated in dollars, then judged in emotion. A low number can feel disappointing if the meal seems small or careless. A higher number can feel fair if it removes uncertainty and delivers enough. Chillingworth had tested a related idea at Farmer Boys, where the Farmstand Fresh & Affordable menu paired complete meals with a $9.99 starting point and stressed made-to-order ingredients.
At Farmer Boys, he borrowed the farmstand itself as a metaphor: a place where seasonal variety is displayed at prices designed to move. That language turned a pricing architecture into a scene customers could picture. The menu later grew into dipping boxes, snack boxes, and seasonal refreshes, each variation preserving a simple promise of choice, completeness, and a visible price.
Price is only one input. Strong value offers combine a number customers can parse quickly, a portion that resolves the occasion, and a product the kitchen can make consistently.
The cup becomes a conversation
Chillingworth was thinking about connected customer behavior before restaurant apps became the default answer. In 2011, Del Taco put Microsoft Tags on 1.6 million cups tied to the movie Real Steel. Guests could scan the packaging to reach mobile content and enter for prizes. The technology now feels like a fossil from the pre-QR era. His explanation does not.
The back-end analytics offer us insights into the effectiveness of our programs and the way our customers use our brand.Noah Chillingworth, discussing Del Taco's 2011 mobile-tag campaign
The cup was not merely an ad surface. It was a bridge from a physical meal to a measurable action. Chillingworth said digital targeting could “activate your brand fans” and break through clutter. The tools changed, from tags to loyalty apps and personalized offers. The underlying exchange stayed recognizable: give people a reason to act, reduce the distance to that action, and study what happens next.
There is restraint in that view of technology. The device is not the story. The customer experience is. Digital succeeds when it makes a useful connection, whether that means exclusive content in 2011 or a timely loyalty offer in 2026. The important data is not that someone tapped a screen. It is what that tap says about appetite, frequency, affection, or price.
Listen for the life around the meal
At Farmer Boys, one customer story opened a different kind of signal. A guest mentioned that his first date at the restaurant had been with the woman he later married. Chillingworth and his team wondered how many other memories were sitting quietly in the customer base. That question became Celebrating Togetherness, a campaign inviting stories about friends, families, teams, and everyday community figures.
The anecdote reveals a complementary side of his method. Analytics can show frequency. A story can explain meaning. The restaurant may think it sells a breakfast burrito, but the customer may remember the morning after a game, a standing lunch with a friend, or the booth where a relationship began. Those are not claims a brand can invent. It can only make room for people to share them.
Chillingworth also took the work outside the ad campaign. At a 2025 Farmer Boys pop-up in Moreno Valley, more than 700 people attended a day of games, face painting, food, and giveaways. The event collected 282 pounds of donated food, equivalent to 235 meals. His description was grounded in the guest experience: prizes, balloons for children, photo booths, and a Wheel of Freshness that gave away eggs. Brand language became a neighborhood Saturday.
Then came the return to Del Taco. Familiarity alone will not solve a restaurant turnaround, and Chillingworth's public remit makes clear that the work is larger than a throwback menu. But familiarity can shorten the distance to the real questions. Which parts of the brand do guests miss? Which value promises still feel credible? Which digital tools create frequency instead of noise? Which ideas can operators execute on a busy Friday night?
His career offers a quiet answer. Pay attention longer than the campaign cycle. Treat the menu as both a financial system and a store of memory. Let customers show you which old products still carry energy, then make the return work for the people cooking and buying them. The drive-thru is fast. Understanding what travels through it takes years.