Celebrate America’s love of junk food at the first ever Cheetos Museum

Ah, chips. The most classically delicious snack to ever be invented. And if there were a chip hall of fame —wait, actually why isn’t there?—Cheetos would easily rank in the top five. It would absolutely not be a stretch to say that one of America’s greatest pastimes is crunching on the puffs of orange delight, licking fingers greasy with cheese dust, the color of a junk food sunset.

Proof of America’s undying love for Cheetos? When the Cheetos Brand put out a callthis summer for folks to submit photos of the wackiest-shaped Cheetos they’d come across while snacking, for a chance to win $50,000, they received over 100,000 submissions.

OK, so maybe the contestants were equally inspired by love of money as love of Cheetos.

Over the ten weeks of the contest, Cheetos judges selected a weekly winner, who were each awarded $10,000 and had their photo displayed in an online “Cheetos Museum.” To decide the ultimate winner, who raked in $50K, they opened it up to popular vote.

To celebrate this outpouring of love from the Cheetos Nation,tomorrow and Thursday there’s a pop-up real lifeCheetos Museum, where you can view art installationsof the virtual snack-shots (not sorry)at Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall. The museum is free and open to the public from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.— because of course Cheetos, snack of the people, are a democratic foodstuff.

Over 40 images, which include Cheetos shaped like an electric guitar, Lady Liberty and Abe Lincoln, will be on display, along with “coveted pieces” from Chester’s collection. Tour guides will be available, in case you think your museum experience would benefit from a Cheetos docent.

At 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, there will be a reveal of the grand prize, $50,000 winning Cheeto shape.

Visitors will receive a complimentary bag of Cheetos Crunchy to devour — after carefully admiring each indiviual chip’s quirks and idiosyncrasies, of course.

For those who missed the contest this time, don’t fret: Cheetos has a new, Halloween-themedcompetition.Snackers can submit a photo of a “Cheetos Monster,” assembled with Cheetos’ limited edition “Bag of Bones” flavor, for another chance to win $50K! If that isn’t enough to light a fire under your cheetos-eatin’ butt, you can find inspiration in the online gallery of Cheetos Monster submissions.

Who knew eating so poorly could make you rich?