- A former PepsiCo exec sued the company for fraud and defamation after it said he didn't invent Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
- Richard Montañez said he proposed the idea while working as a janitor and ultimately rose through the company's ranks.
A former executive at PepsiCo has sued the company, claiming he should get credit for being the brains behind Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
Richard Montañez has frequently spoken of his rags-to-riches story, from starting out as a janitor to pitching the idea for Flamin' Hot Cheetos to PepsiCo's CEO to becoming an executive himself at the drink and snack giant, which formed the basis of his successful career as a motivational speaker. He published a memoir in 2021, and his life story was made into the film "Flamin' Hot" in 2023.
But an explosive Los Angeles Times investigation in 2021 claimed to debunk his claims about the origins of the Flamin' Hot flavor, supported by evidence from PepsiCo. Montañez filed a six-count lawsuit against his former employer on July 18, accusing it of fraud and defamation for making the comments to the publication.
PepsiCo declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider, citing ongoing litigation. Frito-Lay did not respond to a request for comment.
Montañez says he pitched spicy Cheetos while working as a janitor
Richard Montañez's PepsiCo career began in 1976 when he started working as a janitor at its Frito-Lay factory in Rancho Cucamonga, California, per the lawsuit.
During his time at the company, he experimented with making various flavored snacks at home to potentially pitch to the company, according to the lawsuit. But his big breakthrough came when a machine in the factory broke, and he was able to take home a batch of unflavored Cheetos, which he dusted with chile powder to try to replicate the flavor of elote, Mexican grilled corn with chile powder, per the lawsuit.
In 1991, Montañez set up a meeting with PepsiCo CEO Roger Enrico to present his idea for spicy Cheetos, which he thought would be popular with the Latino community. Enrico liked the idea so much that he ordered PepsiCo to start making spicy Cheetos, the lawsuit says.
But PepsiCo "attempted to cut Mr. Montañez out of parts of the process," the lawsuit says.
PepsiCo launched nationwide sales of Flamin' Hot Cheetos in 1992. The product has since become a huge success for the company.
PepsiCo sent Montañez on speaking engagements at places including Walmart, Target, and Harvard University to talk about how he developed the product, the lawsuit says.
Montañez continued to develop other spicy snacks for PepsiCo and ultimately became PepsiCo's vice president of multicultural marketing and sales, according to the lawsuit.
Montañez left PepsiCo in 2019 to dedicate his time to motivational speaking, charging between $10,000 and $50,000 per talk, per the lawsuit.
Frito-Lay says the 'facts do not support the urban legend'
Montañez's story has been disputed. In 2021, The Los Angeles Times published an investigation that seemed to debunk Montañez's claims. More than a dozen former Frito-Lay employees, as well as the company itself, told the outlet that Montañez wasn't behind the development of the Flamin' Hot flavor.
"We do not credit the creation of Flamin' Hot Cheetos or any Flamin' Hot products to him," a spokesperson for Frito-Lay told The Times, adding that its records didn't show that he was involved "in any capacity" in the product's test market.
"The facts do not support the urban legend," the spokesperson said.
Instead, Flamin' Hot Cheetos were developed by a team of snack food professionals in Frito-Lay's Texas headquarters, designed to compete with products sold in inner-city mini-marts in the Midwest, The Times reported. Enrico, the PepsiCo leader that Montañez said he met to pitch the product, didn't become CEO until nearly six months after Flamin' Hot Cheetos were launched in test markets, the Times reported.
Montañez didn't start taking public credit for developing the products until nearly two decades after they were invented, per The Times.
The lawsuit said that PepsiCo had made "false and misleading statements" to The Times in what it described as "an inexplicable about-face." The article was "defamatory," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says the article made potential business partners and members of the public "distrustful" of Montañez to the detriment of his livelihood and mental health. This includes a significant drop in speaking bookings.
The lawsuit says that Montañez was unaware that PepsiCo was already testing spicy snacks in some Midwestern markets at the same time that he was working on his own product.
In a later statement, a spokesperson for PepsiCo told Variety that it attributed the launch and success of Flamin' Hot Cheetos "and other products" to several people, including Montañez.
Montañez "had a remarkable 40-plus-year career at PepsiCo and made an incredible impact on our business and employees," the spokesperson said. PepsiCo's previous comments had been "misconstrued" and fractured its relationship with Montañez, the spokesperson said.
The lawsuit accused PepsiCo of fraud and defamation and said the company discriminated against Montañez because he was Mexican. It is seeking damages and an order preventing the company from making comments suggesting Montañez didn't create the product.