The fiery Flamin’ Hot Cheeto is a beloved snack enjoyed by millions. But the origin story behind this cult classic is getting a spicy twist of its own. Richard Montañez, the man who has long claimed to be the mastermind behind the fiery flavor, has filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo, the parent firm of Frito-Lay which manufactures Cheetos. Montañez, who was hired by Frito-Lay as a janitor and went on to become an executive in the company, claims Frito-Lay is trying to downplay his role in the creation of the popular snack.
Richard Montañez vs PepsiCo
In 2007, Richard Montañez started to take public credit for inventing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, claiming that he was working as a janitor at Frito-Lay’s Rancho Cucamonga plant when he came up with the idea for a chili-covered Cheeto. His “rags to riches” story even earned him a book deal, titled Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive, the 2023 biopic Flamin’ Hot directed by Eva Longoria, and several paid speaking engagements that started his career as a motivational speaker.
However, Frito-Lay has repeatedly stated that Montañez was not involved in developing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, even calling his story an “urban legend.”
Now, Montañez has accused PepsiCo of engaging in a “smear campaign” against him. In a lawsuit he filed on July 18th in California Superior Court, Montañez said he is the victim of fraud, racial discrimination, defamation, and violations of California’s unfair competition law.
The lawsuit refers to a 2021 Los Angeles Times article, in which Frito-Lay categorically denied claims that Montañez had contributed to the development of the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
“None of our records shows that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market,” Frito-Lay told the Los Angeles Times at the time, in response to queries about an internal investigation whose existence had not been previously disclosed. “We have interviewed multiple personnel who were involved in the test market, and all of them indicate that Richard [Montañez] was not involved in any capacity in the test market. That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate Richard, but the facts do not support the urban legend.”
In the lawsuit, Montañez described the Los Angeles Times’ article as “defamatory” and noted that Frito-Lay’s comments have since “taken a devastating toll” on his motivational speaking career. He said he lost “numerous partnerships” and saw “a significant decrease in bookings” since the article was published. Montañez, who was reportedly earning up to $50,000 per speaking engagement during his peak, managed to book “just four speaking engagements” this year so far.
Montañez is seeking a jury trial, damages, restitution, and an order preventing PepsiCo and Frito-Lay from claiming that he is not the creator of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Richard Montañez’s Story
In his 2021 memoir Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive, Montañez claimed he pitched the idea of chili-covered Cheetos to “leading executives” at Frito-Lay, but was met with resistance from the research and development team while trying to produce the snack in bulk.
“Dissatisfied that Mr. Montañez – a poor, uneducated Mexican plant worker and janitor – had successfully developed a new product, Frito-Lay’s R&D personnel completely shut out Mr. Montañez from the development process,” reads a portion of his filing. “Only recently has it become clear that the discriminatory and hostile treatment that Mr. Montañez endured from Frito-Lay’s R&D group was intended to discourage or disadvantage the development of Mr. Montañez’s spicy Cheetos in order to heavily favor the Midwest division’s formulation, spearheaded by more traditional R&D employees.”
“I created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos not only as a product but as a movement and as a loyal executive for PepsiCo,” Montañez said in a separate statement released on July 22nd. “PepsiCo believed in me as a leader because they knew people would follow me, and they did because they knew my soul is my community. We built this into a $2 billion industry, and I cannot let them take away my legacy or destroy my reputation. I will not let them silence me.”
Who invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos according to Frito-Lay
According to Frito-Lay, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were actually created by a team of professionals in 1989, in the corporate offices of Frito-Lay’s headquarters in Plano, Texas. Though the development of Flamin’ Flamin’ Hot Cheetos was a group effort, it was Lynne Greenfeld ― a junior employee with a freshly minted MBA ― who got the assignment to develop a brand that would compete with spicy snacks sold in the inner-city mini-marts of the Midwest. Greenfeld came up with the Flamin’ Hot name herself and was the one who led the line into existence.
When Montañez began calling himself as the creator of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, nobody at Frito-Lay stopped him, as most of the original Flamin’ Hot team, including Greenfeld, had already retired. In fact, Greenfeld was not aware of Montañez’s story until the summer of 2018 when she came across a blog post on the Esquire website.
Shocked to see someone taking credit for a product that she had worked on, Greenfeld ― who now goes by her married name, Lemmel ― reached out to an acquaintance who was still working at Frito-Lay, and that eventually led the company to conduct an internal investigation about Montañez’s claims.
“It is disappointing that 20 years later, someone who played no role in this project would begin to claim our experience as his own and then personally profit from it,” said Greenfeld, who is “very proud” of shepherding the team that put Flamin’ Hots into the world.