Flamin’ Hot is a biographical film charting the rise of Richard Montañez from a lowly janitor’s position to the director of multicultural marketing at Frito-Lay.
Flamin’ Hot is the directorial debut of Eva Longoria and tells the story of Richard Montañez, a Mexican immigrant who joins the Frito-Lay factory in Rancho Cucamonga as a janitor and eventually comes up with the famed “Flamin’ Hot Cheetos” flavor that rejuvenated sales.
He pitched the idea to PepsiCo CEO, Roger Enrico, and was asked to present his ideas to him directly during one of Enrico’s visits to California.
Enrico is enamored by Montañez’s pitch to target the untapped Latino market and gives the go-ahead to his product while also promoting him to Director of Multicultural Marketing eventually.
A hazy memoir
While the film is based on Montañez’s memoir A Boy, a Burrito and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive, this claim about creating the ‘Flamin’ Hot’ flavor has been disputed by Frito-Lay.
According to Montañez, he took a batch of snacks home after a machine broke down and seasoned them with spices similar to the ones found on Mexican street corn. His goal was to produce a flavor that Latinos would taste and be reminded of “home”.
Frito-Lay stated that Montañez was not involved in the decision-making process of the iconic product while the Los Angeles Times did a deep dive into the memoir and found many holes within the timeline of events.
What is true is that Montañez rose from the position of janitor to executive while working for the company, and is credited with pitching the Flamin’ Hot Popcorn in 1994.
PepsiCo released a statement praising Montañez’s contributions to the company and realized that doubling down on debunking his claims alienated them from Montañez and the Latino community.
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