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There are plenty of names that come to mind when it comes to discussing the culinary geniuses of our time, but for every Thomas Keller and Guy Fieri out there, there’s also a mind whose contributions to the world of food go almost entirely unacknowledged. This includes all of the unnamed people responsible for bringing joy and happiness by coming up with the recipes for all of the processed snack food you’ve shoved into your stomach while stoned over the course of your life.
Every single mass-produced product lining the walls of your favorite store has some sort of story behind it, but I doubt there are many that are as cool as the one behind the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. In 1976, Richard Montañez landed a job as a janitor at a Frito-Lay factory in California, and after spending some time with the company, he realized that none of their products featured any sort of the spicy kick featured in many traditional Mexican snack foods.
He decided to rectify this problem by throwing some chili powder on some Cheetos before deciding to call the CEO of the company to let him know what they were missing out on. Instead of being told to get off of the phone and go unclog a toilet, Montañez was given the chance to pitch the product that would eventually become known as Flamin’ Hot Cheetos— a delicacy that has since spawned a number of products capable of showcasing its versatility.
There’s nothing Hollywood loves more than a good underdog story, so it only makes sense that someone has finally decided to document Montañez’s journey on film. According to Variety, Fox Searchlight is developing Flamin’ Hot, a movie documenting the inventor’s rise from blue-collar worker to a corporate executive.
In a perfect world, Paul Thomas Anderson would convince Daniel Day-Lewis to make one more movie based on an Aaron Sorkin script filled with unrealistically witty conversations between people walking down hallways, but the only name attached so far is the guy who wrote October Sky. I’m sure the other two will sign on eventually.