![]() ![]() Enrico’s secretary, Patti Rueff, did recall Montañez calling Enrico, but it would have been after Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were already being tested. The timeline is relevant, as Roger Enrico-whom Montañez said he pitched the product to-didn’t become CEO of Frito-Lay until early 1991, the year after the snacks had been test-marketed. The snacks were available nationally by 1992. The product was tested in 1990, along with similar flavors for Fritos and Lay’s potato chips. It was Frito-Lay employee Lynne Greenfeld, according to the Los Angeles Times, who took the idea through development and also gave it the Flamin’ Hot name. ![]() One Frito-Lay salesman, Fred Lindsay, urged the company to try and develop product to meet that demand. The idea was raised after Frito-Lay took note of the popularity of hot or spicy snacks in the northern U.S., particularly at mini-marts in Detroit and Chicago. In the late 2000s, Montañez began discussing how he developed the idea for hot Cheetos, booking speaking engagements and writing two books that shared his story, 2013’s A Boy, a Burrito, and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive and 2021’s Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man's Rise From Janitor to Top Executive.īut the Los Angeles Times story contradicted his claims, citing interviews with Frito-Lay employees and company records that indicate the spicy Cheetos were the work of employees (none of whom were Montañez) beginning in 1989 in Plano, Texas. The Flamin’ Hot Cheetos brand took off, becoming a zeitgeist snack. The idea, he said, was ultimately accepted following a presentation to over 100 company personnel as well as Roger Enrico, the CEO of Frito-Lay at the time. He sent samples to Frito-Lay executives, but didn’t hear back. With his wife, Judy, the two concocted a spicy seasoning. I thought, we don’t have anything for people who like spices.”Īccording to his account, Montañez got some plain, unflavored Cheetos from the factory. And I looked at our Lay’s, Ruffles, Fritos. ![]() “I saw people buying Chile peppers,” Montañez told NPR in 2021. According to a 2021 Los Angeles Times report, Montañez’s oft-shared story was that he was employed as a maintenance worker at a Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California, in the late 1980s when he was inspired to add a hot chili pepper-style flavor to the company’s Cheetos snack. ![]()
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