How A Snack Becomes Flamin’ Hot

THE RICHARD MONTANEZ STORY

BY JUSTINE SEO PHOTO BY MARIA MURAD

Hot Cheetos’ reach is wider than the typical vending machine snack food. They have a unique internet presence propagated by celebrities and social media; Katy Perry even dressed up as one of the bright red chips for Halloween in 2014. Before their rise, snacks were salty and bland. Even notable counterparts, like the Nacho Cheese Dorito, paled in comparison. The Hot Cheeto perfectly catered to an evolving American flavor palette and rising internet culture — and it was invented through the home experimentation of a former Frito-Lay janitor. Although Hot Cheetos have only risen to international fame in recent years, they emerged in the market almost 30 years ago as a result of some genius experimentation and an assembly line error. In 1992, Richard Montanez, who had been working as a janitor at Frito-Lay for 16 years, took home some Cheetos from a broken machine which had failed to cover them in the iconic orange dust. As Montanez discusses in his memoir “A Boy, a Burrito, and a Cookie”, years prior to his worldfamous invention, he had had a food business catering to his school cafeteria. Attending school in the 1960s during segregation, Montanez was alienated because of his Mexican heritage and became deeply embarrassed about the burrito he brought for lunch everyday. He begged his mother to pack him something else, but she refused and gave him two instead, telling him to make a friend and share it with them. In a couple days, Montanez was selling burritos to his classmates for 25 cents a piece. Driven by the same inventive and entrepreneurial spirit, Montanez decided to dust the defective Cheetos himself, inspired by the chili and lime flavoring of one of his childhood snacks — elote, a popular Mexican street food of corn. They were instantly popular among his friends and family. Montanez called then-Frito-Lay CEO Roger Enrico and asked if he could present his novel invention to him. Enrico accepted. With a two week deadline to pitch his product on the horizon, Montanez set to work, taking out business books from the library, developing a marketing strategy, and even designing the packing. His presentation was an instant hit with Enrico, and soon after, an entire line of spicy snacks was released from Frito Lay, with Hot Cheetos as the flagship product — and the only one still available today. Staying on the market for so long is an undoubtedly huge feat for a specialty flavor product; they are usually popular for a couple months then slowly cycle out as customers return to the original flavor (a 2005 Schneider / Stagnito Communications study on consumer reaction to product launches showed that about 85% customers stick to products they are already familiar with). Nowadays, it is rare to find somebody who prefers the original Cheetos to their flavor-packed alternative. Montanez’s philosophy for creating Hot Cheetos, both as a food and as a brand, serves as an important reminder for us all— to never think you are too small to lead to greatness (maybe by inventing the next internationally-renowned, cultfavorite snack).