Local Biscuit Maker is Champion over 700 other Restaurant Biscuit Makers
RICHMOND,VA. (March 2015) – If the breakfast biscuits baked at the Hardee’s® restaurant at 5000 W. Broad St. taste delicious, that’s because they are made by a Biscuit Maker Champion.
Local Hardee’s biscuit maker Amy Shearer has been judged the Best Biscuit Maker of Boddie-Noell Enterprises, the largest Hardee’s franchise operator in the nation. Shearer advanced beyond more than 700 other biscuit makers at the company’s 334th Hardee’s restaurants across four states to win the overall award for 2014.
Contestants in Boddie-Noell’s annual Biscuit Maker Challenge represented Hardee’s restaurants across North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Kentucky. In addition to Shearer, the three best biscuit maker regional winners were Anthony Robinson of the Independence Boulevard Hardee’s in Virginia Beach, Maritza Farfan of Salem and Teresa Keys of Washington, N.C.
“This is such a blessing,” said Shearer who has been making the Made From Scratch biscuits for two years. “I make my biscuits with lots of ‘TLC’. I pretend that I’m going to eat each one.”
Shearer and the three other regional winners will be featured later this year in photos on the in-store tray liners at all Hardee’s restaurants operated by Boddie-Noell.
The competition started in October, and each biscuit maker was evaluated based on the quality of his or her biscuits, knowledge of proper biscuit equipment, cleanliness and care of the biscuit equipment, knowledge and execution of company procedures, grooming and appearance. The competition’s judges included general managers, district managers, regional directors, vice presidents and other executives in the restaurant division of Boddie-Noell at five levels of competition.
Shearer, who lives in Henrico, has worked as a biscuit maker at Hardee’s since 2013. Boddie-Noell honored the four regional winners and announced Shearer as the overall winner during a banquet at the company’s Rose Hill Plantation near Nashville, NC.
Shearer says the key to creating the best Hardee’s Made from Scratch™ Biscuit begins with “following the procedures.” But she adds that “biscuit-making is a fine art and it takes a lot of practice.” Shearer also noted she has been baking her whole life and that many factors like temperature and humidity, for instance, can affect the results. Her favorite biscuit? “The Country Ham Biscuit,” she said.
“We have some great biscuit makers in our restaurants, but Mary is one of our newer stars and her biscuits are really something special,” said Terry Lewis, Boddie-Noell’s President of Hardee’s Restaurant Operations and host of the Biscuit Maker Banquet. “Every single customer wants her biscuits.”
When she isn’t making biscuits, Shearer enjoys animals, sports, baking and spending time with her family. She also recently wrote a book titled God, Mom & Rock-and-Roll which underscores her deep faith.
Hardee’s Made from Scratch™ biscuits, which have been served at Boddie-Noell restaurants since 1977, remain a vital part of the restaurant’s menu.
In 2014, Hardee’s restaurants owned and operated by Boddie-Noell used more than 11 million pounds of flour and biscuit mix, more than 865,000 gallons of buttermilk and 382,800 pounds of cinnamon raisin biscuit mix to make the golden brown biscuits – roughly requiring 5,000 acres of wheat and 490 truckloads of ingredients.
About Boddie-Noell Enterprises
With over 50 years success as a Hardee’s franchisee, family-owned Boddie-Noell is the largest Hardee’s franchise operator in the United States with 334 restaurant locations in four states. The company is based in Rocky Mount, N.C. For more information, visit www.bneinc.com.
