A former janitor who made a profitable profession claiming that he invented the well-known Flamin’ Scorching Cheetos snack has hit again at mother or father firm Frito-Lay after they claimed his 20-year story was an “city legend”.
Because the early 2000s Richard Montañez has repeatedly claimed that he pitched the thought for the chili-covered crisps to a supervisor in 1991 when he labored for them at a warehouse in Rancho Cucamonga in California.
His inspirational, “rags to riches” story garnered him a e-book deal titled “Flamin’ Scorching: The Unimaginable True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Prime Government” and an upcoming biopic directed by Hollywood star Eva Longoria.
However after 20 years of not disputing his declare, Frito-Lay lately got here ahead and denied he was by no means concerned within the creation of the product, as reported in The Los Angeles Instances.
“None of our data present that Richard was concerned in any capability within the Flamin’ Scorching take a look at market,” Frito-Lay advised the newspaper in an announcement.
“We have now interviewed a number of personnel who had been concerned within the take a look at market, and all of them point out that Richard was not concerned in any capability within the take a look at market.”
They didn’t deny his rise by way of the corporate, from janitor to a advertising director and added: “That doesn’t imply we don’t rejoice Richard, however the info don’t assist the city legend.”
“I used to be their biggest ambassador,” Montañez tells Selection of Frito-Lay. “However I’ll say this, you’re going to like your organization greater than they may ever love you, hold that in perspective.”
They declare {that a} junior worker in Texas referred to as Lynne Greenfeld got here up with the thought and identify in 1989.
She reportedly contacted the corporate in 2018 after listening to Mr Montañez’s model, triggering an inner investigation.
The corporate added: “We worth Richard’s many contributions to our firm, particularly his insights into Hispanic shoppers, however we don’t credit score the creation of Flamin’ Scorching Cheetos or any Flamin’ Scorching merchandise to him.”
Mr Montañez advised Selection that he had not heard of Ms Greenfield and referred to as himself the model’s “biggest ever ambassador.”
He stated: “I’m not even going to attempt to dispute that girl, as a result of I don’t know. All I can inform you is what I did. All I’ve is my historical past, what I did in my kitchen.”
Montañez alleges that he started pitching product concepts to Frito-Lay within the late ’80s, whereas working as a janitor for the corporate.
“Frito-Lay had one thing referred to as the method-improvement program, in search of concepts. That form of impressed me, so I all the time had these concepts for various flavors and merchandise,” Montañez says. “The one distinction in what I did, is I made the product, as an alternative of simply writing the thought on a chunk of paper and sending it. They’d ahead over these merchandise to the suitable folks and I didn’t know, as a result of I used to be only a frontline employee.”
Mr Montañez’s consultant, Steven Montañez, added: “The recipe and the flavors that Richard got here up with, in fact once they had been able to get mass produced, Frito-Lay tweaked them and did no matter they wanted to do to get them market prepared. However Richard by no means obtained to be a part of it as a result of his place had nothing to do with it. He wasn’t a marketer, he wasn’t in R&D, he wasn’t in gross sales — he was a common utility machine operator, which is a janitor.”
