Where is Lynne Greenfeld Now? We discuss a key subject from the 2023 Hulu movie Flamin’ Hot which contains significant spoilers.
If you are a fan of true life rags to riches stories, you must check out the 2023 movie Flamin’ Hot from Hulu.
The film is based on a memoir from Richard Montanez entitled A Boy, a Burrito and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive, and it explains the situation that led to the conception of the Cheetos brand.
Montanez alleges that he was, in fact, the inventor of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos after working there from an early age.
He actively seeks out people that can help him become more familiar with the workings of the factory and meets Clarence C Baker, who reluctantly teaches him how everything works. However, a downturn in the economy of the US led to the company Frito Lay losing money and issuing redundancies.
Montanez, however, bucks the trend and thinks more like a CEO than a factory worker. Recognizing his child’s love of spicy food, he has a Eureka moment and decides that pitching to the Latino community could be a way to boost profits.
In his own time, using his resources, he works to find the perfect flavors for a spicy version of Cheetos. He tries and fails several times before he gets the opportunity to present his spicy Cheetos to an executive.
Eventually, Richard Montanez overcame many obstacles before being promoted to Director of Multicultural Marketing. However, this version of events has been disputed by a former employee of Frito Lay called Lynne Greenfeld.
This spicily dusted article hopes to illuminate where Lynne Greenfeld is now.
Who is Lynne Greenfeld?
Lynne was also a former employee at Frito Lay. Not much is known about Lynne, as she keeps a relatively low profile. However, in a 2021 article with the LA Times, the ex-worker disputed the claims of Montanez.
Now married, Lynne would allege that she had been given the job of finding a new brand for Frito Lay by the product manager Sharon Owens.
What did Lynne Greenfeld do for the Flamin’ Hot brand?
Greenfeld would explain she was the head of a team developed to find out how Frito Lay could compete with other such snacks and that she was behind the name Flamin’ Hos. Along with the other workers assigned to the project, they would produce the branding and flavors for the new product.
After reading an article in a magazine about Montanez’s claims, she would get in touch with Frito Lay, and the company would issue a statement about the issue.
The statement would acknowledge all the work Montanez had done for the company but also clearly state, “We do not credit the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or any Flamin’ Hot products to (Montanez).”
As is often the case with these stories, it becomes a “he says, she says” scenario, as Montanez would continue to say his version of events was true, and he did not know Lynne Greenfeld or her team.
Where is Lynne Greenfeld Now?
Lynne is now in her sixties and lives in Texas. In April 2019, Lynne would write down all the details about her work with her team on Frito Lay relevant to the Flamin’ Hot brand.
The company would send the information to the team behind the film, but the movie does not acknowledge the dispute in its screenplay but explains that a team was also working on a similar product at the same time.
Spicy indeed.
