History
Lee Cummings, the nephew of Colonel Harland Sanders (founder of KFC), spent much of his childhood in the kitchen of his Henryville, Indiana home. Lee hit the road with his uncle Harland in 1952, selling their own special blend of spices along with their famous pressure cookers, which later became part of KFC's "Secret Recipe". In three years, Lee and the Colonel opened over 800 KFC stores.
After the sale of KFC in 1962, Lee Cummings started developing his recipe, later to be known as "Famous Recipe." In 1966, Lee along with Harold Omer started "Harold's Take-Home" in Lima, Ohio where Lee first introduced his Famous Recipe Chicken. The word spread about this great new recipe and later that year the first franchise unit was opened in Columbus, Ohio.
By 1967, the fifth franchise unit was opened in Springfield, Ohio. Later that year, units followed in Dayton, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In 1970, Lee's Famous Recipe went international with the opening of three units in Trinidad and by 1972 there were more than 100 units in the thriving chain. By 1979, the number of units had doubled to 200 and in 1981 Lee sold the chain to Shoney's Restaurants in Nashville, Tennessee. Shoney's continued to operate Lee's along with their own Captain D's and Shoney's Restaurants until 1995, when Lee's was sold to RTM Restaurant Group in Atlanta, Georgia.
In May 2003, the chain had 29 company owned locations and 125 franchised locations. In October 2003, Lee's Famous Recipe Inc. was purchased from RTM.
Read more about this topic: Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken
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