Richard Montañez is an American

businessman A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial ...

motivational speaker A motivational speaker (or inspirational speaker) is a speaker who makes speeches intended to motivate or inspire an audience. Such speakers may attempt to challenge or transform their audiences. The speech itself is popularly known as a pep ta ...

, and

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. After

dropping out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most in ...

of school, he was hired by

Frito-Lay Frito-Lay, Inc. (; ) is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and sells snack foods. It began in the early 1930s as two companies, Fritos, the Frito Company and Lay's, H.W. Lay & Company, that merged in 1961. Frito-Lay itself merg ...

as a janitor and went on to become an executive in the company. He is best known for his claim of inventing Flamin' Hot Cheetos, which is disputed by Frito-Lay and other employees.Sarah Gonzalez (May 12, 2021)
Hot Cheetos
''NPR''.Sarah Gonzalez (May 12, 2021)
Hot Cheetos
(Podcast). ''Planet Money''. This claim served as the basis for the 2023 film '' Flamin' Hot''.

Early life

Montañez was born to a

Mexican-American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

family in

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, it lies ...

. One of ten siblings, he was raised in a migrant labor camp in Guasti, an unincorporated community outside of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

.Gwen Aviles (August 28, 2019)
The story behind the Flamin' Hot Cheetos creator is great. Eva Longoria is making it into a movie
''NBC News''. He dropped out of school and worked as a laborer before being hired at the age of 18 as a janitor for

, at its

Rancho Cucamonga Rancho Cucamonga was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in present-day San Bernardino County, California, given in 1839 to the dedicated soldier, smuggler and politician Tiburcio Tapia by Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. The gra ...

factory, in 1976.Kathleen Elkins (March 27, 2018)
How a janitor invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos and became an exec at PepsiCo
CNBC. According to records at Frito-Lay, Montañez was promoted to a machinist operator position by October 1977, and was a senior machinist operator in

autumn Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphe ...

1993.David Hage & Linda Grant (December 6, 1993)
How to make America work: Crunching rivals with resourceful workers
''U.S. News & World Report'', p. 52

Flamin' Hot Cheetos

According to Montañez's account, when a

Cheetos Cheetos (formerly styled as Chee-tos until 1998) is a crunchy corn- cheese puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the United ...

machine broke down, he took home a batch of unflavored snacks and seasoned them with spices akin to Mexican street corn. He pitched this idea to CEO

Roger Enrico Roger Anthony Enrico (November 11, 1944 – June 1, 2016) was an American businessman who is best known for his lengthy service as chief executive officer of PepsiCo. Early life Enrico was born on November 11, 1944, to Italian immigrants in the ...

over the phone and was invited to deliver an in-person presentation, which he prepared for by researching marketing at the

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

. Montañez then presented the product as appealing to the growing Latino market, and provided samples in plastic bags that he had hand-decorated and sealed. It was

soft-launched A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it wid ...

six months later to a

test market A test market, in the field of business and marketing, is a geographic region or demographic group used to gauge the viability of a product or service in the mass market prior to a wide scale rollout. The criteria used to judge the acceptability ...

, and approved for national release in 1992. ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' reported that the flavor, since expanded to a full product line, "rejuvenated the brand" and garnered billions in revenue.Andrew Whalen (August 27, 2019)
The True Story of the Flamin' Hot Cheetos Inventor Richard Montañez
''Newsweek''. In May 2021, a ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' article disputed Montañez's claim, reporting that based on an internal investigation at Frito-Lay, he did not create Flamin' Hot Cheetos. A spokesperson for Frito-Lay stated, "we value Richard's many contributions to our company, especially his insights into

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

consumers, but we do not credit the creation of Flamin' Hot Cheetos or any Flamin' Hot products to him." Additional reporting by the ''Times'' indicated that Montañez's claims did not line up with other events in the product's release timeline, including McCormick developing the seasoning and providing initial samples to Frito-Lay on December 15, 1989, newspaper articles announcing the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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, and

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

test market release in 1990, and Roger Enrico not joining Frito-Lay until 1991, among other inaccuracies. The internal investigation was prompted by a complaint in 2018 from Lynne Greenfeld, a former employee who managed the team that developed the spicy snack for the single serve format. Fred Lindsay, who was a sales rep for Frito-Lay in the

Great Lakes region The Great Lakes region of Northern America is a binational Canadian– American region centered on the Great Lakes that includes the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and the Ca ...

before being promoted to its corporate headquarters, was also cited in interviews with former employees as being influential to the early development of spicy snacks. According to the article, however, Montañez did in fact rise from a floor-level position to a marketing executive at Frito-Lay, and he was involved in pitching new products such as Flamin' Hot Popcorn while still a machine operator in 1993 followed by two types of

Fritos Fritos is an American brand of corn chips that was created in 1932 by Charles Elmer Doolin and has been produced since 1961 by the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo. Fritos are made by deep-frying extruded whole cornmeal, unlike the similar torti ...

— Flamin’ Hot and Lime and Chile Corn Chips. Roberto Siewczynski, who worked with Frito-Lay as a Latino-focused

consultant A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

, clarified that events Montañez has described actually took place during the Sabrositas test market in 1994.Sam Dean (May 16, 2021)
The man who didn't invent Flamin' Hot Cheetos
''Los Angeles Times'' Following the ''LA Times'' article,

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

reporter Sarah Gonzalez disclosed her own investigation for a ''

Planet Money ''Planet Money'' is an American podcast and blog produced by NPR. Using "creative and entertaining" dialogue and narrative, ''Planet Money'' claims to be "The Economy Explained". History The podcast was created by Alex Blumberg and Adam Davi ...

'' interview with Montañez released prior to the article. According to Al Carey, a former executive at Frito-Lay, and Patti Reuff, Roger Enrico's former assistant, Montañez pitched a similar product, but this could not have been before 1992. Carey stated the product was approved and sold in California using seasoning from the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

. Frito-Lay noted that Montañez met with Al Carey and Jim Rich at the Rancho Cucamonga plant, where he and two others "presented several products developed for Latino consumers, including cinnamon and spicy popcorn, and spicy Cheetos." Roger Enrico was not present and the date could not be confirmed, leaving it unclear whether this was the meeting Montañez, Carey, and Reuff described. Montañez maintained his claims to ''Variety'' after the ''LA Times'' article, saying that he was pushed out of development before the test markets and his contributions were not documented due to his low position in the company. In response, '' Flamin' Hot'' screenwriter Lewis Colick added that "enough" of the story was true even if it was not entirely factual.

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

released a statement in support of Montañez's contributions to the company, saying that the issue has caused "a strain on our valued friendship with Richard Montañez and the Latino community." While the statement claimed that "information we shared with the media has been misconstrued by some," it did not contradict or deny the ''Times'' reporting. In July 2024, Montañez filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo, due to their statements saying that Montañez did not create Flamin' Hot Cheetos. The lawsuit claimed that PepsiCo committed

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

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, and

defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

towards Montañez.

Later career

Montañez began giving

keynote A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

speeches, largely based on his Flamin' Hot Cheetos claim, in the late 2000s. Montañez's last position was vice president of multicultural sales and community promotions for PepsiCo North America. He retired from PepsiCo in March 2019 during an internal investigation into his Flamin' Hot Cheetos claim. Montañez is the author of two books based on his life experiences: ''A Boy, a Burrito, and a Cookie'', and ''Flamin' Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man's Rise from Janitor to Top Executive''. He is the subject of a

biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and histo ...

, '' Flamin' Hot'', directed by

Eva Longoria Eva Jacqueline Longoria Bastón ( Longoria; born March 15, 1975) is an American actress, producer, director, and businesswoman. After several guest roles on television, she became recognized for her portrayal of Isabella Braña on the CBS day ...

.Dave McNary (August 26, 2019)
Eva Longoria to Direct Biopic About Flamin' Hot Cheetos Creator
''Variety''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Montanez, Richard Living people American business executives American inventors Janitors American people of Mexican descent People from San Bernardino County, California Year of birth missing (living people)