who created flamin hot cheetos

Flamin' Hot Cheetos are widely credited to Richard Montañez, a former janitor at Frito-Lay, who claimed he invented the spicy snack by seasoning plain Cheetos with chili powder inspired by Mexican street vendors. Montañez presented his idea to Frito-Lay executives and eventually rose to become a VP at PepsiCo. However, this origin story has been disputed by Frito-Lay and some former employees, who say the product was actually developed by a team at Frito-Lay headquarters in Texas and that Montañez was not involved in its creation. Richard Montañez's story has become a popular rags-to-riches narrative and inspired the 2023 movie "Flamin' Hot." Despite the dispute, PepsiCo acknowledged Montañez's significant contributions to marketing and the Hispanic consumer market, while not officially crediting him as the inventor of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. In summary, Richard Montañez is popularly recognized as the creator of Flamin' Hot Cheetos by many, but the official stance of Frito-Lay credits the product's creation to a team effort internally within the company rather than Montañez alone.