Flamin' Hot Review: Flavor, Credit and Myth
Flamin' Hot is the most joyful movie ever made about a snack. It is also a movie about a story that may not be true, and that is exactly why I think it is worth watching.
As a food scientist, I have sat in a lot of rooms where a new flavor gets born. It almost never happens the way the brand video tells it. Flavors come out of teams, briefs, test kitchens, consumer panels, seasoning suppliers and a long trail of paperwork. Then marketing picks one human moment and turns it into the legend. Flamin' Hot is that legend, filmed with a lot of love.
The details: Flamin' Hot (2023). Directed by Eva Longoria in her feature directorial debut, written by Linda Yvette Chávez and Lewis Colick, based on Richard Montañez's memoir A Boy, a Burrito and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive. Starring Jesse Garcia, Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert and Tony Shalhoub. Premiered at SXSW and released June 9, 2023 on Hulu and Disney+.
The story the film tells
Jesse Garcia plays Richard Montañez, who grows up in Southern California selling burritos to classmates, gets into trouble, and later lands a janitor job at a Frito-Lay plant. He watches the machines. He asks an engineer, played with great warmth by Dennis Haysbert, to teach him how everything works. When the company's CEO, Roger Enrico, sends a video telling workers to "think like a CEO," Richard takes him literally.
The spark comes at a street vendor. Richard notices his son loves the spicy flavor on elotes, Mexican street corn, and realizes that Latino customers are not being served by the snacks on the shelf. He and his wife Judy, played by Annie Gonzalez, experiment at home with unseasoned Cheetos until they find the blend. He calls the CEO directly. The pitch works.
Longoria directs all of this with energy, humor and genuine affection for working families. Annie Gonzalez is the film's secret weapon. Judy is not the supportive wife in the background. She is a co-developer, and the movie knows it.
The record says something different
In May 2021, while the film was in development, the Los Angeles Times published an investigation disputing Montañez's account. According to that reporting, Frito-Lay's records credit a team managed by Lynne Greenfeld with developing Flamin' Hot Cheetos. The company filed a trademark in June 1990, and test markets in Chicago, Detroit and Houston began that August. Former executives said Montañez did pitch spicy products, but later. NPR followed up. What is not in dispute is that Montañez really did rise from the plant floor to a marketing executive role, and he did pitch later Flamin' Hot products.
The producers chose to keep the original premise. Montañez's own response was memorable: document everything.
Why that matters more than a fact check
I don't want to be the scientist who ruins a fun movie. So let me say what I actually think.
Both stories are about invisible labor. In one version, a Mexican American janitor's insight is ignored until he forces his way into the room. In the other, a woman in brand development leads a team whose work gets erased by a better narrative. Either way, the person who did the work risks disappearing, and the person with the best story gets the credit.
That is the food industry. Ingredient innovation, flavor science and product development are full of people whose names never make the package. Food companies love an origin myth because myths sell. Records are boring. But records are also how credit, equity and royalties get assigned. If you are a young founder or a food scientist watching this film, the real lesson is Montañez's own line. Write it down. Date it. Save it.
What the film gets right about flavor
Here is what I love, and what I think is true regardless of who invented the seasoning. The film understands that flavor is cultural data. The heat, lime and chili on a street corn cart encode generations of preference that a national snack company was not reading. When the product finally sells, it is because the community sells it, by hand, store by store.
That is a real insight about markets. The people closest to the culture usually see the opportunity first. Most companies just are not built to listen to them.
Verdict
Watch it as a fable, not a documentary. Flamin' Hot is a feel good crowd pleaser with a terrific performance from Annie Gonzalez and a Diane Warren song, "The Fire Inside," that earned an Oscar nomination. Then read the Los Angeles Times investigation, and ask yourself whose names are missing from the story of your favorite food. That second step is where the film becomes genuinely useful.
Cover image: Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures via SearchlightPictures.com