[imagesource: Alan Lopez for Remezcla]

The backstory of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is a hot and touchy subject right now.

For many years, a guy named Richard Montañez has told his rags-to-riches story about being a Frito-Lay janitor turned executive who invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, one of the brand’s biggest sellers.

But following recent investigations, the backstory may all be ‘artificially flavoured fiction’.

Before (and regardless of) the controversies, Montañez has inspired so many people with this story, through two books and motivational talks (there’s a snippet of one below), and there’s even a movie in the works, Flamin’ Hot, directed by Eva Longoria.

The gist of the backstory, via VICE, is that Montañez started out sweeping the floors at the Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga, California in 1976 when he was 18.

Then, when Roger Enrico became the company’s CEO, he inspired employees to start thinking like they were the owners, which Montañez took to heart.

The light bulb moment came for hot Cheetos, which led to him and his wife, Judy, working on the flavour blend in their kitchen.

After calling the CEO with the news of his invention, Frito-Lay started production on what became the wildly popular Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

The success of the hot snack led to promotions on top of promotions for Montañez, who finally became the vice-president at Frito-Lay’s parent company, PepsiCo.

Then, controversy hit, turning the hot snack a little sour.

The Los Angeles Times did some investigating, and it turns out Montañez’ “beautiful” story may not actually be totally true:

The [LA] Times has questioned Montañez’ claims about the super spicy Cheetos, suggesting that they were actually developed a couple of years earlier and over 1 000 miles away from the factory where he worked.

Lynne Greenfeld says she is in fact the person who came up with the flavour for the flamin’ snack, as well as the name:

“It is disappointing that 20 years later, someone who played no role in this project would begin to claim our experience as his own and then personally profit from it,” Greenfeld told the [LA] Times.

The reporter for the LA Times, Sam Dean, found that none of what Montañez had been selling matched what he found from the interviews with more than a dozen former Frito-Lay employees, or the newspaper and press clippings that covered Montañez’ tenure with the company and the launch of the company’s then-new Flamin’ Hot product lines:

“None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market,” Frito-Lay told the Times.

“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. That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate Richard, but the facts do not support the urban legend.”

Additionally, Montañez’ version of events doesn’t add up with the timing that Roger Enrico, the CEO who inspired him to “think like an owner”, started his job with Frito-Lay:

By the time Enrico settled into his new office chair, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos had been on the shelves in those four test markets for six months.

Despite all that could discredit what was supposed to make Montañez a legend, his story is still really impressive:

Even without the potential embellishment, Montañez is still incredibly impressive, and his resume illustrates the initiative, innovation, and perseverance he displayed during his 42 years with Frito-Lay.

He really did climb several rungs on the corporate ladder, and he really did submit dozens of his ideas to Frito-Lay.

It appears that Eva Longoria is sticking by Montañez, and the behind-the-scenes part of the production for the biopic Flamin’ Hot is still going ahead:

“It’s a beautiful story,” [Eva] said. “His whole life, he was told ‘No, that opportunity’s not for you, ideas don’t come from people like you,’ and he was like, ‘Why not?’ It’s a very beautiful story [about] the man and his journey and how he succeeded in a world that tells you no.”

Montañez, of course, is sticking to what he believes to be his authentic life story:

“In that era, Frito-Lay had five divisions,” he told Variety.

“I don’t know what the other parts of the country, the other divisions—I don’t know what they were doing. I’m not even going to try to dispute [Lynne Greenfeld], because I don’t know. All I can tell you is what I did. All I have is my history, what I did in my kitchen.”

On his Instagram, he speaks about “writing your own history”:

 

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A post shared by Richard Montanez (@hotcheetosrpm)

The truth is, inspirational stories, especially those proving that success is possible from someone starting at the bottom, have a tendency to trump facts.

This one is just flamin’ hot.

[source:vice]