The creator of Cheetos: a visionary mechanic, vegetarian, and founder of Disneyland

In 1955, in the heart of the new Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Frito Kid greeted visitors. He was made of wood and sported a large cowboy hat on his head. His eyes were always wide as saucers. A giant smile played in his mouth. When someone inserted a coin, the figure would activate, lick his lips, and release a bag of Fritos that slid down a ramp.Deeeeelicious "Fried foods," he spat out in a childish voice through a crackling loudspeaker. "Fresh out of the mine!" he added in English.

Frito Kid was the most eye-catching attraction at the House of Fritos, one of the park's first restaurants and the pride of one of the founding investors of the new Disneyland. The menu featured quick and inexpensive Mexican dishes, accompanied by crispy fried corn chips called Fritos, very popular in the United States. Behind the product—and the restaurant—was a remarkable character: Charles Elmer Doolin, a former mechanic obsessed with corn, a radical vegetarian, and a visionary entrepreneur. He had not only been able to transform a home-cooked recipe into a national phenomenon, but his resume also included the invention of Cheetos, one of the key brands that Matutano markets today in Catalonia. How did he manage to create his own empire?

An investment of $100

Restaurant patrons could read Charles Elmer Doolin's story on the same menu they received at their tables. At the bottom, a couple of paragraphs summarized the young Texan's adventures. He was born in 1903 in Kansas City, into a family passionate about mechanics. His father, an engineer and inventor, had taught him how to disassemble engines and write patents, and as a young man, he had worked in the family's auto and tire repair shop. Later, after settling in San Antonio, Doolin ran a small candy store, the Highland Park Confectionery, where he sold ice cream, candy, and cookies. But the competition was fierce, and ice cream wasn't selling as well as it used to. He wanted to offer something new: an affordable, tasty product that wouldn't melt in the heat.

In 1932, he went to eat at a San Antonio cafeteria and left with a recipe that would change his life. With $100 borrowed from his mother, he had just bought the formula for a type of fried corn cookie that had been served to him as an appetizer. He had loved them and knew they could please many other people. That same night, in their kitchen, he, his mother, and his brother began producing them, selling them in five-cent bags around the neighborhood.

The product was simple, yet unmistakable: it was crunchy, salty, and had the intense flavor of fried corn. Under the name Fritos, they quickly became famous throughout the city. Doolin patented a machine to increase production and moved the company to Dallas, where within a few years he had several plants, a franchise network, and his own research laboratory. The mechanic had become an entrepreneur and no longer repaired engines: he manufactured them.snacksHe cultivated his own varieties of corn on experimental farms scattered throughout Texas. His biographies explain that he was also a vegetarian and that he rarely ate fried foods, salt, or fats. Neither did those in his products.

From Fritos to Cheetos

The invention of Fritos was just the beginning. Through home experiments, Doolin stumbled upon a new formula: a fried corn stick coated in cheese powder. He named it Cheeto and launched it in 1948. Success was immediate, but the small family business couldn't supply the entire country. This led him to partner with Herman Lay, another snack pioneer, with whom he would eventually found Frito-Lay in 1961. Two decades after that $100 purchase, his company was generating millions in revenue, had production plants throughout the United States, and was beginning to expand internationally. In 1965, without Doolin, who had died in 1959, Frito-Lay merged with Pepsi-Cola to form the food giant PepsiCo.

Today, Cheetos are available all over the world, and in Catalonia they are sold under the Matutano brand, within the vast PepsiCo empire. They offer special editions, limited-time flavors, collaborations with all kinds of brands, and formats to suit every taste.