in 2018 a woman by the name of lynn

greenfield came across an article that

made her uncomfortable it was the story

of richard montenez the man who invented

flamin hot cheetos it was a feel-good

story a poor janitor with a billion

dollar idea and lynn greenfield could

hardly believe what she was reading

richard was a hero and not just because

he invented flame and hot cheetos but

because of the inspiration he gave to

the millions of people who heard his

story his legacy was a viral sensation

and this made her uncomfortable you see

lynn greenfield isn't just some negative

person hating on a good story

she's the real inventor of flaming hot

cheetos

after this discovery lynn greenfield

contacted frito-lay to set the record

straight and this started a chain

reaction that led us to where we're at

today but before we go any further you

need to be familiar with richard's side

of the story and let me warn you

it's heartwarming

[Music]

in the 1980s richard montenez was a

janitor at a frito-lay plant outside of

los angeles roger enrico was the ceo at

the time and he sent out a company-wide

videotape encouraging employees to take

more initiative and to act like they

were owners now while most employees

just brushed this off as corporate fluff

richard took it seriously

he was at a local grocery store when he

found himself studying the frito-lay

products on the shelves he noticed they

were all plain and lacking real flavor

and that's when the idea hit him the

time had come to do a chip with some

heat some real spice he snagged some

plain cheetos from the factory and he

and his wife worked to get the perfect

mix of spices until he found the

ultimate concoction

richard had created the first flamin hot

cheeto in his own kitchen he jumped on

the phone and called the ceo roger

enrico now the secretary was a bit

confused by a janitor calling for a ceo

but surprisingly she sent his call

through enrico loved the idea he told

richard he'd be at the plant in two

weeks and asked him to prepare a

presentation for the executives now in

richard's own words he couldn't read or

write very well and he had no formal

business knowledge but that wasn't going

to stop him he went to the local library

studied marketing concepts and prepared

100 plastic baggies with his cheeto

invention on the day of the presentation

richard stepped into the boardroom here

i was a janitor speaking to some of the

most highly qualified executives in

america the presentation was going much

better than he expected but just as it

was about to end an executive asked him

how much market share his invention

could get now richard had no idea what

market share meant so he spread his arms

wide and said that much market share

richard's invention turned out to be one

of the most successful products in

frito-lay history making the company

billions of dollars he quickly rose

through the ranks became an executive

and went on to give many public speeches

about his story he has written multiple

books and has a feature-length movie

coming out about him and then the

internet made richard a viral sensation

which ultimately led to an article that

came across the eyes of lynn greenfield

according to greenfield the feel-good

story about richard was a lie

she claims that flamin hot cheetos was

her project so she got in touch with the

company's legal team and let them know

what was happening this triggered a

company investigation which concluded

with frito-lay making this statement

none of our records show that richard

was involved in any capacity in the

flaming hot test market now you might be

thinking okay so he wasn't involved in

the test market but that doesn't mean he

didn't come up with the idea right well

richard claims that he came up with the

idea in a grocery store in california

but according to the investigation the

idea didn't come from california it

didn't even come from the corporate

office in texas

six former employees said the idea came

from corner stores in chicago and

detroit salesmen were noticing that

spicy snacks were selling well in that

area so they relayed this information

back to corporate who tasked the project

to the marketing department which

ultimately landed on the desk of lynn

greenfield

but wait a minute in richard's defense

he had that big presentation where he

pitched the idea of flamin hot cheetos

he describes this dramatic event as

having over 100 people most of whom were

top executives of the company so

regardless of where the idea supposedly

came from richard should have at least

100 people who can come to his defense

and verify his story right

well the la times tracked down 20 of

those executives and none of them

remember this famous presentation

one former project manager was recorded

as saying if that story existed believe

me

we would have heard about it now for the

sake of the argument let's assume that

these 20 individuals just have terrible

memories maybe this presentation did

happen but richard exaggerated a little

making it seem more dramatic than it

actually was i mean the man was writing

books and giving speeches it's

understandable that he might fluff this

up a little and besides richard still

has a very important card up his sleeve

the man who first believed in him

the former ceo roger enrico is a main

character in richard's story he's the

one who sent out the company-wide

videotape that inspired richard he was

the ceo who accepted the call from the

janitor he was the one who planned the

famous presentation and he's the one who

approved the development of flamin hot

cheetos in richard's latest book he

mentions roger enrico by name 60 times

so regardless of these other

inconsistencies richard has the former

ceo as his alibi

but there's just one problem

roger enrico wasn't the ceo at the time

his career with frito-lay started in

early 1991 and this was six months after

flamin hot cheetos were already

developed

enrico passed away in 2016 without ever

mentioning flamin hot cheetos publicly

now the evidence is clearly stacked

against richard at this point at the

conclusion of the investigation frida

lay came out with this statement we

value richard's many contributions to

our company especially his insights into

hispanic consumers but we do not credit

the creation of flamin hot cheetos or

any flamin hot products to him

how in the world did richard montenez

mislead so many people well in order to

answer these questions there's another

part of this story that's really

important do you remember when richard

said he called up the ceo roger enrico

to pitch him his idea and supposedly the

secretary actually sent his call through

well that phone call actually happened

this is that secretary her name is patty

and she vividly remembers richard

calling but she says this happened in

1993 after flamin hot cheetos were

already on the shelves so if that were

the case if flame and hot cheetos were

already developed then what was that

phone call about

this is where the story gets even more

complicated the la times found a

newspaper article about richard from the

early 90s this was while he was still a

plant worker the article said that

richard had developed a new snack that

was aimed at the hispanic market it goes

on to say that he even tested recipes

and came up with a marketing strategy

sounds pretty familiar well the article

goes on to tell us the name of the

product that richard developed

flamin hot popcorn

this snack hit shelves in march of 1994

as an extension of flamin hot cheetos

richard went on to develop an entire

line of products called sabritas and

this was a big project so frida lay

hired this guy as a consultant his name

is roberto sochinski and he remembers

richard specifically and this is

important he recalls richard designing a

marketing strategy with a local network

of women hosting tupperware parties now

this was a unique approach and roberto

who was hired on specifically for the

sabritas line remembers it well

richard talks about the tupperware

parties in his book but as you might

have guessed

he says it was for flamin hot cheetos

you might be starting to see a pattern

here there seems to be a lot of little

nuggets of truth in richard's story as

far as i can tell there are three

possible explanations to this whole mess

the first is that richard lied and i

would guess this happened over the span

of a few years maybe a decade richard

slowly started to conflate flamin hot

cheetos with his own true story with

these other products flamin hot cheetos

flamin hot popcorn what's the difference

the second possible explanation is that

richard has memory problems there's an

area of study in psychology called the

misinformation effect and it deals with

how easily our memories can be

influenced over time i don't want to

speculate too much on this but in my

research it seems like this could easily

apply to richard's situation the third

and last possible explanation is that

richard is telling the truth when the la

times article dropped it caused a pr

nightmare for frito-lay a lengthy

statement was quickly issued defending

richard reiterating his importance to

the company and people took this as a

win for richard saying that the l.a

times article was debunked and that

richard was in fact telling the truth

the only problem is that the statement

never addressed the real issue it danced

around the only question that actually

mattered did richard montenez invent

flamin hot cheetos additionally

frito-lay never raised any issues with

the la times article they never asked

for corrections or amendments but

regardless maybe this entire

investigation was rigged against richard

maybe he did in fact invent flaming hot

cheetos after all

the man is a genius i'm a genius