Former PepsiCo exec who claims to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos sues company for defamation

The man who claims he invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is suing his former employer, PepsiCo, for saying he didn’t.

Richard Montañez, who worked his way up from the janitorial staff to the executive suite and was the subject of last year’s Eva Longoria-produced documentary detailing his trajectory, filed suit against PepsiCo alleging “fraud, racial discrimination, defamation and violations of California’s unfair competition law,” according to a press release from his attorneys at Ellis George LLP.

In the 62-page complaint, Montañez not only insists that he invented the multibillion-dollar Flamin’ Hot Cheetos brand but also that PepsiCo defamed him after he tried to claim credit.

The suit filed last Thursday in Superior Court of the State of California in San Bernardino seeks a “jury trial, damages, restitution and an order preventing PepsiCo and subsidiary Frito-Lay from claiming that Mr. Montañez is not the creator of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.”

Montañez said he arrived at his version of the spicy seasoning in his kitchen as he sought ways to make bland-ish Cheetos more attractive to Latinos. PepsiCo, he alleged, glommed onto the idea, then farmed it out to Midwestern R&D teams.

“Dissatisfied that Mr. Montañez — a poor, uneducated Mexican plant worker and janitor — had successfully developed a new product, Frito-Lay’s R&D personnel completely shut out Mr. Montañez from the development process,” the lawsuit alleges, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Montañez eventually became a vice president of multicultural marketing and sales at the beverage and snack conglomerate before retiring in 2020. His suit references a 2021 Los Angeles Times story in which PepsiCo showed that the feisty munchables were already in the pipeline by the time Montañez’s suggestion came along, though the company would later say some of its statements had been “misconstrued.”

Nonetheless, Montañez said the denial cost him thousands of dollars in speaking fees as bookings dried up.

“I created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos not only as a product but as a movement and as a loyal executive for PepsiCo,” Montañez said in his attorney’s statement. “PepsiCo believed in me as a leader because they knew people would follow me, and they did because they knew my soul is my community. We built this into a $2 billion industry, and I cannot let them take away my legacy or destroy my reputation. I will not let them silence me.”

Neither PepsiCo nor Frito-Lay replied to a Daily News request for comment, though a Frito-Lay spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times it would not comment on pending litigation.