OUR STORY Privately held, Lee Cummings, the nephew of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders, started developing his "Famous Recipe" chicken in 1966. Lee along with Harold Omer started "Harold's Take-Home" in Lima, OH where he introduced his first Famous Chicken recipe. The word spread of the great new recipe and later that year, the first franchise unit was sold to Jim Sanders in Columbus, OH. Today, there are 135 locations in 14 states across America, all franchised owned. Lee's menu consists of a broad range of homestyle food items with the taste that has made Lee's famous for more than 40 years. What makes Lee's Famous Recipe stand out in the world of chicken restaurants is our policy of serving chicken that is always fresh - never frozen.