Alleged Creator of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Files Lawsuit Against PepsiCo
The former janitor who says he created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is suing his former employer for fraud and defamation, saying his current livelihood – motivational speaker and author – is being harmed by Frito-Lay and PepsiCo’s denials that he played a key role in formulating the popular snack.
Richard Montañez for a decade has been telling the rags-to-riches story of how he dreamed up Flamin’ Hot Cheetos while working as a janitor for Frito-Lay, believed in the idea enough to go directly to PepsiCo's chief executive to pitch his idea and eventually became a PepsiCo marketing vice president.
Frito-Lay and PepsiCo had been unusually mum on the subject, although acknowledging he did provide them with insights into Hispanic taste preferences. Then a 2021 Los Angeles Times article dug into the story, finding “chronological inconsistencies in Montañez’s story, archival proof of the release of test products, and comments by Frito-Lay executives” that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos was a team effort that did not include Montanez.
“None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market,” Frito-Lay said in the Times’ 2021 article. “That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate Richard, but the facts do not support the urban legend.”
The 2021 Times article, which included 20 interviews of former Frito-Lay product development employees, said no one could recall Montañez’s story of a janitor pitching to the chief executive a new spicy snack that would cater to the Latino community – that according to a new Times article just two days ago.
Nevertheless, Montanez this week filed a 62-page lawsuit in California state court that claims Frito-Lay changed the way it talked about Montañez’s role in creating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, “which can only be explained by some combination of a regime change, spite, and deep-seated racism.” The shift caused potential documentaries about Montañez’s life to be abandoned, the lawsuit says.
His version of the story was told in the 2023 film “Flamin’ Hot,” directed by Eva Longoria, and in two memoirs. After his 2019 retirement from Frito-Lay, he became a motivational speaker and consultant, but that business has dwindled as questions arose about his role at Frito-Lay.
The new Times story is a good read; find it here.