Who came up with Flamin' Hot Cheetos?

Recently, I was looking for some entreprenureal career direction, perferably in book form. One recently published biography stood out to me as a fun way to inspire myself to “succeed in business”. The book is titled Flaming’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive.

The book blurb for Flamin’ Hot promises a great story about how one man did not let his circumstances determine his career growth. His perspective is one that I had not read before. It is an excellent, film-worthy read, releasing soon from Fox Searching Pictures with Eva Longoria as director.

Warning — book spoilers ahead.

In the 1970s, Richard Montanez took a job at Frito-Lay as a Janitor on a production line floor. He was an adult with a family equipped with the education of a sixth-grade student. He talks about being from the wrong side of the tracks — literally — and the systematic challenges he faced simply because he lived in the wrong neighborhood.

“Flamin’ Hot” is an excellent beginners book on how to succeed in business, packaged in an enjoyable, easy-to-read rags-to-riches narritve. Montanez offers advice about how to navigate office politics without condescension or elitism. Readers see stories of how he to balanced work and family. There were plenty of tips and tricks that I learned from this book to apply to my career.

While working at Frito-Lay, Montanez encounters both managers that are not in his corner and supportive managers and colleagues. He gets promoted a few times at the first Frito-Lay factory location we meet. Then, Montanez develops his “Flamin’ Hot Cheetos” product in his home with his wife, using discarded Cheetos brought home from work. Once given an opportunity to showcase his idea for a product, he uses the local library to learn how to use a computer and create a presentation.

Roger Enrico is the inspiration Montanez needs to “shoot for the moon” to develop and propose “Flamin’ Hot Cheetos” to the higher ups. A colleague risks getting in trouble to help Montanez find the phone number for Enrico, with whom he arranges a meeting to pitch the product. The big moment where he pitches his “Flaming Hot Cheetos” concept takes place in a big room with seemingly every executive possible. Roger Enrico seems to accept Montanez’s proposal for his new product line with arms wide open in a made for film appearing moment.

The problem is that Enrico came to Frito-Lay in 1990 after Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were already in development with the company. Flaming’ Hot Cheetos were in development at Frito-Lay in the late 1980s and already in test markets such as Chicago. Also, Montanez’s characterization of Enrico is not reflective of how other executives describe him.

In real life Montanez was documented as a marketing executive at Frito-Lay. He is now a motivational speaker and leadership coach. Earlier promotions as a plat worker on the production floor were explained, but his office job promotions at Frito-Lay are not. There is no moment in the book where we learn what his new executive titles are on the way to the executive suite. Montanez with research and development on his product in the book. Yet, the tone and detail in the writing is noticeably different and less transparent than descriptions of life on the ground floor of a factory were.

T​he LA Times published an article in 2021 titled “The Man Who Didn’t Invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos”. Defending himself in an article published in Variety, Montanez says he knows what he did and that he was in a different division from the people who say they are the actual developers of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Curiously, Frito-Lay has not legally stopped Montanez from telling his story via the book or possible upcoming film nor prevented him from claiming to be the creator of “Flamin’ Hot Cheetos”, a product name also supposedly not dreamed up by Montanez. NPR also discussed this controversy in a 2021 episode of their All Thing Considered podcast.

It is possible that all parties are telling their own truth and that the objective truth is somewhere in the middle.

All I know for sure is that I’m really excited to watch the movie.