Appetizers

I get all kinds of glamorous invitations sent to me, but never have I had the chance to become a board-certified Carl's Jr. biscuit baker. Too bad I can't make it. Going behind the scenes at a fast-food joint just doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid.

To be fair, I lived in the Deep South for several years and can attest to how good the biscuits were at Hardee's. In the days when I thought I could eat anything without putting on weight or jacking my heart, I used to order a bacon and cheese biscuit at Hardee's for breakfast. If you enjoy big, fluffy biscuits, Carl's Jr. is bringing them to CA in January.

Here's my invite from Carl's Jr. (which also owns Hardee's):

Hi Blair,

I wanted to get in touch on behalf of my client Carl's Jr. to see if you would be interested in joining us for a special behind-the-scenes opportunity at one of our Sacramento-area restaurants in the beginning of January.

Carl's Jr. is in the process of a significant new product rollout for the brand, amping up its breakfast offerings by bringing its sister chain Hardee's signature Made From Scratch Biscuits - which have for decades been a beloved item in the South and Midwest that Hardee's is known for - to our restaurants in the West. We're currently in the process of equipping 80 Sacramento-area restaurants to be able to make the biscuits from scratch each day, and will be celebrating the launch of biscuits in Sacramento on 1/9 with Free Biscuit Day. Guests will be able to receive a free Sausage Biscuit at Carl's Jr. during breakfast hours.

If you're not familiar with the fandom around these back east, the buttermilk biscuits have a reputation because they're made from scratch by Hardee's bakers who come into each restaurant early every single morning to measure and mix up the dough by hand, roll and cut them out by hand, and bake and test them to strict standards. They are never pre-made nor frozen.

If you are available to join us at one of our local restaurants the first/second week of January, we'd like to show you this process firsthand. And ask you to roll up your sleeves and work with our bakers to make the morning's biscuits. In fact, you'll be Hardee's Biscuit Certified by the end of the morning. When we introduced biscuits in Orange County, CA, OC Register writer Nancy Luna joined us for a biscuit training and created a video of the process - you can get a sense of what the training entails here: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/carl-323118-biscuits-fast.html

If you're interested in joining us and/or getting some content for your site, let me know and we can work out a date that suits your schedule.

Closer to Free Biscuit Day, we'll also have a release with all of the info and hi-res photos.

We hope you can join us!

Blair Anthony Robertson is The Bee's restaurant critic. Follow him on Twitter, @blarob.