Have you ever heard the story of “where” Doritos were invented? It’s not a story you’ll forget and it’ll leave you thinking “Only in America.”
Let’s go back to 1955 when Disneyland first opened. The founder of Frito-Lay got permission from Walt Disney to open up a Mexican, as Mexican as Disney would allow of course, themed restaurant in Frontierland. They called it “Casa de Fritos,” and Fritos were a main ingredient in most of their dishes.
In the American way, Casa de Fritos contracted their tortilla production to a family owned company called Alex Foods. One day, a salesman from Alex Foods was making a delivery to Casa de Fritos when he noticed all the stale tortillas in the garbage. He gave the cook at the Casa some advice- fry the old tortillas and sell them as chips instead of tossing them in the garbage. So Casa de Fritos began frying up their old tortillas and seasoning them- it became a huge success, but they never reported their new menu item to Frito-Lay.
A year after it’s dumpster conception, the VP of Frito-Lay Archibald Clark West, made a surprise visit to the Casa and discovered the new snack. It was love at first sight, and he called that love Doritos. West made a deal with Alex Foods to sell Doritos as a snack. When the snack exploded with popularity, they moved production to a factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma, cutting out Alex Foods from the Doritos club- luckily the Morales family, who owned Alex Foods, were doing alright.
According to Business Insider, West really, really loved Doritos. He stayed on the seasoned fried tortillas his entire life, his favorite being the plain corn and Cool Ranch. When he retired from being VP, he still worked as a taste tester. Before he died, he tasted the Cheeseburger flavored Dorito and spat it out. When he did die, he requested that his daughter throw Doritos into the grave with him. Talk about Doritos for life.
So the next time you finish up a bag of the good old Cool Ranch or one of their other steroid inspired flavors, as you clean the delicious seasoning off your fingers with your tongue, remember you are sucking on the magic of a Disneyland dumpster.
Featured image via Flickr by kundl
