About this item

Richard Montaez wasn't supposed to have big dreams. Born to migrant farm workers and mired in grinding generational poverty, he left school in the sixth grade, eventually taking a job mopping floors at Frito Lay's California factory to support his young wife and family. Everything changed when one night, at 28, Montaez took his future in his hands: he used his wife's recipe for chili sauce to season a bag of plain Cheetos he'd snuck home. After an intense process of experimenting and testing, and an incredibly risky call to the company's CEO, breaking with protocol, Montaez launched Flamin' Hot Cheetos. He never expected the onslaught of discrimination, backstabbing, and attempted sabotage - or the chip's explosive success. Flamin' Hot shares the inside story of the world's hottest snack food.