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Doritos Inventor's Ashes Will Be Mixed With Doritos
By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 26, 2011
Modified Sep 26, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 26, 2011
Modified Sep 26, 2011
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Arch West was a marketing V.P. for Frito Lay in 1961 when, on a family vacation near San Diego, he happened upon a snack shack selling fried tortilla chips. And in a fiery blast of scorchin' inspiration, he came up with the idea for Doritos. The wildly addictive snack debuted three years later, and was the very first tortilla chip to be launched nationally—according to Wikipedia, the word "dorito" sounds similar to "doradito," which means "little golden" in Spanish. Our Spanish is a little rusty, but we always thought it meant "Oh God, did I really inhale that whole bag while watching Cops?"
West passed away Tuesday in Dallas at the ripe old age of 97—living proof of the cleansing and restorative power of his creation. There will be a memorial on October 1st, and his daughter, Jana Hacker, tells The Dallas Morning News [paywall] the family is planning on "tossing Doritos chips in before they put the dirt over the urn." Snack food sources tell us Frito-Lay is poised to announce a new limited edition flavor, Doritos First Degree Urn.
Tagged
arch west
doritos
frito lay
junk food
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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