Irene Rich

Irene Rich is the daughter of Buddy Peak, who opened Peak Brothers Bar-B-Que in Waverly, Kentucky, with his brother Barker on July 4, 1948, after both returned from World War II. She and her siblings worked at the restaurant from their teens, and Buddy handed the business to his children in the 1980s. The restaurant burned in 1976 and was lost again to fire in 2006; when the Southern Foodways Alliance visited in 2009, Rich was marking a year since it reopened. Peak Brothers is best known for its barbecue hams, which customers buy whole for the holidays, and for western Kentucky chipped and sliced mutton. In 2016 Rich was the owner and said her daughter, Candace, would take over as the third generation.