Man who says he invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos sues Frito-Lay

A former Frito-Lay employee who has long claimed to have invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos has sued the company over statements it made denying he had a role in their creation. Richard Montañez, whose claims were recently the subject of a feature film, said the company's statements to the media have caused him to lose income from speaking and consultancy engagements.

"For decades, Mr. Montañez lived the American Dream. Now, he's living the American Nightmare," the complaint read. "After years of lauding Mr. Montañez to drive sales, defendants' recent about-face--which can be only explained by some combination of a regime change, spite, and deep-seated racism--exemplifies the worst part of American history, exhibiting an attitude that says: Latinos with no higher education cannot be responsible for the success of a billion-dollar brand."

Ellis George LLP partners Eric M. George and Serli Polatoglu, along with associate David D. Kim, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Montañez on Thursday.

According to the complaint, Montañez claims to have pitched Flamin' Hot Cheetos in 1991 to then-Frito-Lay-CEO Roger Enrico's after formulating the recipe at home using un-seasoned Cheetos. Despite resistance and discrimination from the company's research and development department, the product was launched to wild success, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, the complaint said.

For years afterward, the lawsuit claimed, Frito-Lay publicly acknowledged Montañez as the inventor of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, sending him on speaking engagements across the nation to tell his story.

However, a 2021 LA Times article entitled The Man Who Didn't Invent Flamin' Hot Cheetos called his account into question, citing interviews with over a dozen former Frito-Lay employees.

Thursday's complaint claimed that the source interviewed for the LA Times piece had the ulterior motive of taking credit for Flamin' Hot Cheetos for themselves.

"After championing Mr. Montañez for decades as the creator of Flamin' Hot Cheetos and an inspirational figure to be looked up to both within the Frito-Lay/PepsiCo organization and without, Frito-Lay suddenly cut Mr. Montañez down," the complaint said. "Mr. Montañez suddenly found himself under attack from the very organization and people to whom he had devoted more than 40 years of his life."

The lawsuit alleges six causes of action: violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act, fraud, defamation, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, unjust enrichment and violation of California's unfair competition law.