Man Responsible For Doritos Locos Taco Dies

Many people taking online culinary classes hope to one day advance the modern dining experience. Todd Mills, who died on Thanksgiving after a battle with brain cancer, was someone who actually did. Mills, who was 41 when he passed, didn’t create a dining masterpiece that would later bear his name or build a restaurant empire across the country. He doesn’t have any traditional claim to culinary fame. He was, however, the man who came up with the concept of Doritos taco shells.

According to Mills’s wife Ginger, the novel taco shell idea began as something personal. He loved eating his taco salads with Doritos and liked the idea so much that he reached out to chips and snack food manufacturer Frito-Lays in 2009, but was rejected.

Not easily deterred, Mills used the power of social networking to share his idea with the world. He created a Facebook page that featured humorous photoshopped images of the Doritos tacos shells with famous celebrities, cartoons, ads and other pop culture icons. Some images include Gordon Ramsey, Keanu Reeves and the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.

As the Facebook page grew in popularity, the idea of Doritos taco shells became more of a reality. In 2012, Mills finally received a phone call from representatives of Taco Bell. The restaurant chain flew him out to one of its test kitchens in California to be one of the first people to taste its brand new Doritos Locos Tacos.

Mills didn’t receive any compensation for his idea even though Taco Bell went on to sell over $1 billion worth of the tacos. They did contribute $1,000 to Mills’s family to help pay for medical treatment after family friends reached out to the company on Twitter.

After Mills’s funeral, friends and family went to Taco Bell to eat his favorite meal.