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Frito-Lay Disputes Exec Who Take Credit For Flamin' Hot Cheetos
- Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, August 17, 2022 5:55 PM
Janitor-turned-marketing-executive Richard Montañez has been telling the world for the last decade how he invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The rags-to-riches tale is even the subject of an upcoming movie. “There’s just one problem: Montañez didn’t invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, according to interviews with more than a dozen former Frito-Lay employees, the archival record and Frito-Lay itself,” per the Los Angeles Times. The product was actually created by a team of hotshot snack food professionals starting in 1989, in the corporate offices of Frito-Lay’s headquarters in Plano, Texas.
