![]() ![]() "During his 40+ years at Frito Lay, Richard Montanez repeated the story of his involvement with this product hundreds of times, in speeches, books, and media interviews. ![]() TODAY Food reached out to Montañez's publisher to see if these new claims will affect the release of his latest book "Flamin' Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man's Rise from Janitor to Top Executive," and Adrian Zackheim, president and publisher of Portfolio Books, said that the publishing house is excited to release the book as scheduled. The story is about overcoming adversity and racial discrimination.” “The story isn’t really about Hot Cheetos. While there were plenty of readers shocked at the accusations that Montañez had apparently been lying for decades about his role with Frito-Lay, others on social media had a lot of questions that still needed to be answered.“I think that going to inspire people to do the right thing. Montañez was later named vice president of multicultural sales and community promotions for Frito-Lay’s parent company PepsiCo. He was then able to pitch his idea to CEO Roger Enrico over the phone and was then given the opportunity to present it to him in person. At home, he created the mixture for the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos spice. All I have is my history, what I did in my kitchen.”Īs the story goes, Montañez was working as a janitor at the Frito-Lay company and took home a sample of unflavored Cheetos after a machine broke down in the plant. “I’m not even going to try to dispute that lady, because I don’t know,” he says. ![]() He says he’s never heard the name Greenfeld until now. Montañez says during that time, Frito-Lay had five divisions, so he’s not sure what some of the other parts of the company were doing. “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’s statement reads. Times reports that the Flamin’ Hot brand was developed by a junior employee at Frito-Lay’s corporate office in Texas named Lynne Greenfeld, who triggered an internal investigation when she contacted Frito-Lay in 2018 asking why Montañez was taking credit for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. “But I will say this, you’re going to love your company more than they will ever love you, keep that in perspective.” “I was their greatest ambassador,” he says. Montañez pushed back in an interview with Variety on the same day the L.A. That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate Richard, but the facts do not support the urban legend.” “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. “None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market,” Frito-Lay wrote in a statement to the L.A. In an investigative report released by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday (May 16), Frito-Lay called Montañez’s claims that he invented the spicy version of Cheetos false. The story of how Richard Montañez, a former janitor working at Frito-Lay, invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and worked his way to the executive suite, is legendary, but now, Frito-Lay is saying it is all a big fraud. ![]()
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