Biscuit-maker Teresa Keys knows her craft. As a 15-year-maker of Hardees’ light golden brown and fluffy biscuits, she competes annually for the top biscuit-making spot, and this year, she celebrates being one of the top four in a four-state area.

Keys got her start as a cashier in 1999, joining Boddie-Noelle Enterprises, owner of Hardees locations in four states — North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Kentucky, she said. The following year, she was appointed to coveted position of Hardees biscuit maker and began her journey toward being on the best in the business.

Boddie-Noelle, the largest Hardees franchise operator in the United States, began its biscuit-making competitions back in the early 1980s where biscuit-makers throughout the franchise compete in a bracketed hierarchy, with winners advancing to the final competition in Rocky Mount, the location of the franchise’s headquarters, according to Rick Rountree, media relations manager for the Boddie-Noelle franchise.

“They take it very seriously,” Rountree said. “Biscuits are sort of the centerpiece of our breakfast menu, so it’s only fitting that we would want to recognize the very best makers.”

Keys competed against biscuit-makers in the store on the east end of Washington where she arrives at 4 a.m., Mondays through Fridays, to make and serve as many as 800 biscuits per day, according to District Manager Michael Davenport. From there, Keys competed with representatives from seven other locations in New Bern, Goldsboro and Greenville. After winning that competition, she advanced to regionals, encompassing around 90 other locations throughout a good portion of eastern North Carolina, an area of South Carolina and a few other areas. From there, she advanced to the Boddie-Noelle Enterprises competition in Rocky Mount and finished as one of the final four biscuit-makers in the company, something Davenport is proud of, he said.

“I’m without words for Teresa and her success,” Davenport said. “She’s come so close in the past and, this year, she broke through the barrier.”

According to Rountree, Boddie-Noelle describes the ideal biscuit as “crusty and golden brown on top — and evenly browned on the bottom — with an interior that is soft, light and tender but not too fluffy. It should be slightly moist, but not so moist that it becomes gummy when you eat it, and dry enough to absorb a pat of good butter as it melts. It should be flavorful and well-seasoned, with a slight buttermilk taste, pleasing on its own but an excellent vehicle for other flavors as well.”

At the competition, biscuit-makers are tasked with making a bag of biscuits in about 18 minutes, equivalent to about three pans of biscuits, according to Keys. Each competitor is judged based on a specific set of criteria, including height, weight and other criteria.

Keys said the competition has helped her become a better and more efficient biscuit-maker at work and vice versa, something that is of the utmost importance to her. Her customers keep up with her competitions and root for her as she advances from round to round and she receives a lot of support from her family, Keys said.

“The most important thing to keep in mind is you want to make a product you are proud of and that the customers will enjoy,” Keys said. “I don’t put out anything that I wouldn’t eat myself. When people judge me and let me know my biscuits are better than someone else’s, it makes me feel like I’ve done something right. When I was competing, the customers asked me how I did, and they were as proud of me as I am myself. It took me a while to get here. I’m a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother — I have the support of my family. When I went to my last competition, I had my daughter with me to support me so that felt good. And I like working for Boddie-Noelle, because they are family-oriented and they care about (us). They are very caring people.”

For her achievement as a regional winner, Keys was recognized with a financial award, a plaque and a gift basket at Boddie-Noelle’s conference center where the four finalists gathered for a banquet, according to Rountree. Keys and the other finalists will also be featured on placemats in Hardees locations in the four other states throughout the Boddie-Noelle franchise. Keys said she plans to keep making biscuits, as well as continue to compete for the top biscuit-making spot, she said.

“I’m going to keep doing the same things — making the biscuits properly and taking it one day at a time and keep making good biscuits,” Keys said.