The Creators Origins
The creator of flaming Hot Cheetos, Richard Montañez, grew up in Guasti, California in the 1960s. Guasti was a small farming town located 40 miles east from Los Angeles. Montañez lived in a small one bedroom home with his parents, grandfather and his 10 siblings. He also had a rough time at school due to him struggling to learn English. After having a rough time at school he decided to drop out and work in the fields. After working the fields a few years, a neighbor told him about job position as a janitor at frito- lay. This job would change his life forever.
His Million Dollar Idea
After mopping the floor for ten years Montañez wanted to learn the process of sales. He and a salesman went to a mini-mart in a Latino Neighborhood. All the Frito-Lay chips where bland and un flavor full. Next to the their chips was spicy Mexican chips. In the moment he realized that Frito-Lay had nothing spicy or hot with flavor. A few weeks later, Montañez stopped by a local street vendor to get a elote. An elote is a delicious Mexican street corn that has chili pepper on it. As he was enjoying his corn an idea struck him. ‘What if I put chili spice on Cheetos. The next day he took some Cheetos that had not been dusted in cheese yet and he brought them home. He and his wife put chili pepper on it. He called the CEO and told him about his idea. The CEO loved it. He brought the model to the board room. Everyone approved. They produced the new Cheetos and started selling them in East LA. The people loved them and they did great in sales. These chips eventually became frito lays number one chip.
