Frito-Lay Claims Richard Montanez Is Not The Inventor of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, Ahead of Eva Longoria's Film Kicking Off Production
Frito-Lay has refuted the claims that Richard Montanez invented the infamous Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and are calling it an “urban legend”.
The company released a statement following the attention that the upcoming movie, which will be directed by Eva Longoria, is getting.
Click inside to see what Frito-Lay is saying about the origin story of their product…
As the story goes, Richard was originally a janitor at the Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., before he pitched his idea to the higher-ups at the company for the new flavor of the popular snack.
However, according to Frito-Lay records, Richard has no claim as being the sole inventor of the product at all.
In a new article in the Los Angeles Times, Frito-Lay shared a statement that read that none of their “records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market.
“We have interviewed multiple personnel who were involved in the test market, and all of them indicate that Richard 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.”
However, their records do show that a junior employee at Frito-Lay’s corporate office in Texas named Lynne Greenfeld was assigned to develop the Flamin’ Hot brand in 1989. She apparently came up with the name, and helped bring the product to markets all over the country.
When Richard began to tell everyone that he had invented the flavor, Lynne sparked an internal investigation. That resulted in a conclusion alleging that Richard is not the inventor.
“We value Richard’s many contributions to our company, especially his insights into Hispanic consumers, but we do not credit the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or any Flamin’ Hot products to him,” Frito-Lay added in their statement to the Times.
Despite the records, there was another former Frito-Lay executive, Al Carey, who insisted that Richard is the true creator of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
He shared that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were “definitely not out in the market” before he met with Richard in 1992, who pitched him the idea. “The product was developed by those guys in the plant.”
Frito-Lay still refutes it though.
“According to our records, McCormick, Frito-Lay’s longtime seasoning supplier, developed the Flamin’ Hot seasoning and sent initial samples to Frito-Lay on Dec. 15, 1989. This is essentially the same seasoning Frito-Lay uses today.”
UPDATE: After the release of the Los Angeles Times article, the reporter who broke the story with NPR got more nuanced statements from Frito-Lay. See below for the tweets.
Since @PlanetMoney put out an episode on Hot Cheetos, another story has come out about a competing claim. That piece quotes Frito-Lay as saying Richard Montañez was not involved “in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market.” Frito-Lay gave us more nuanced statements. 1/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
Despite multiple direct questions and invitations to do so, Frito-Lay did not directly deny Montañez’s involvement in creating Hot Cheetos. However, they did suggest that two independent teams could have worked separately to create the product. I mention this in the piece. 2/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
As with every piece, Planet Money works hard to make sure the story we’re telling is accurate. Given the new reporting, we're reviewing multiple statements in our episode. In the meantime, here’s a fuller version of my correspondence with Frito-Lay. 3/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
I corresponded with Frito-Lay over a dozen times by email, phone and text between May 3-May 10. At first they told me: “… we do not credit the product creation to him and him alone.” I asked them to clarify whether that meant Montañez was not at all involved. 4/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
On May 6th, by phone, the response was: “He was a part of it. Yes. Sure.” I spoke to Frito-Lay again this morning and they confirmed that they did make this statement. 5/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
Before we published, Frito-Lay also confirmed that “a Richard Montañez product” was developed in the Cucamonga plant in Southern California. See the following two statements from Frito-Lay on 5/7/2021. 6/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
“Former employees recall that a small CA-based marketing team which was developing products for San Diego and Los Angeles learned of the Richard Montañez product and decided to test market in Southern CA and that it performed well and was handed over to Frito-Lay R&D.” 7/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
“Former Frito-Lay R&D members recall that samples were prepared and submitted to FLNA HQ R&D from the Cucamonga plant. A supply chain leader thought they may have used the Flamin’ Hot seasoning from the pork rind product, but wasn’t entirely sure.” 8/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
Frito-Lay did not specifically say whether these samples were Hot Cheetos. However, they mentioned two former employees who remembered Cheetos specifically: 9/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
Frito-Lay said: “Al Carey and Jim Rich attended a meeting at the Rancho Cucamonga plant during which Richard Montañez and two other individuals presented several products developed for Latino consumers, including cinnamon and spicy popcorn, and spicy Cheetos.” 10/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
Frito-Lay also said “Roger Enrico was not present at this meeting.” They were unable to confirm the date of the meeting, or whether it was the same meeting Montañez, and Enrico’s former assistant, Patti Reuff, described. 11/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
As I mentioned above, Frito-Lay did tell me about Hot Cheetos tested out in a Midwest market in 1989/1990. But in an email and by phone, Frito-Lay said it’s possible the Midwest product could have been happening at the same time as the Cucamonga product: 12/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
“At the time of the Rancho Cucamonga meeting, FLNA was divided into divisions, with each division operating independently with its own executive team. As such, the West Division may not have been aware of the Metroline products/test.” 13/14 (Metroline is the Midwest product.)
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
We’re continuing to look into the details of this story. 14/14
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 17, 2021
Update: Frito-Lay told me they first talked to the LA Times on Thurs, after our episode published. They said they gave the same information to them as they gave to me. But said they "learned things yesterday" from the story and that "additional facts were brought to light."
— Sarah Aida Gonzalez (@GonzalezSarahA) May 18, 2021
UPDATE: Read what Richard Montanez has said in response to the report.
Earlier this month, Eva announced who would star in the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos movie.
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