Throwdown with Bobby Flay visits the Loveless Cafe

"Throwdown with Bobby Flay" Loveless Café Biscuits & Jam Photo Gallery

Carol Fay Ellison, Loveless Café's "Biscuit Lady," was approached about a visit from the Food Network. Believing they were doing a profile story on Ellison, she gathered her measured "secret" biscuit ingredients and took them to a large tent erected behind the famed Nashville establishment. Tables were set up with baking sheets for the famous fluffy biscuits and pots with burners for her demonstration on making the jam that is shipped all over the world through the restaurant's mail order business.

Just as Ellison was beginning her mixture of flour and "a little bit of this and a little bit of that," came an interruption as a gentleman made his way through the standing crowd. As he approached the table, a stunned Ellison screamed out "Bobby Flay!" accompanied by gasps from the crowd. Ellison was not there for a profile, it seems that she was actually targeted as Flay's next competitor for his Food Network "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" television show.

Within minutes, Flay's was emptied and filling the other side of the tent with his own L-shaped outdoor kitchen. Ellison watched as the Flay tables filled up with items for his biscuits and jam. A perplexed Ellison quipped, "Did you bring your whole kitchen?" When the request was made for Ellison to repeat the line, for taping purposes, Flay told them not to tell her what to say. Ellison quickly retorted, "I already said it once," just to make sure he knew that she was the one who had come up with the comment.

Once the "Throwdown" officially began, audience members were encouraged to shout out questions to either of the two cooks and at times requests were made for them to repeat as well to make sure that they were on camera, even though totally unrehearsed. Ellison worked on her biscuits, rolling and cutting and then carefully placing on a sprayed baking sheet which she then handed off to an assistant, Hope, to carry to the Loveless kitchen ovens for baking.
Flay and his two assistants, plus one other that mysteriously snuck in from time-to-time, worked feverishly adding the shocking ingredient of pepper to his biscuit recipe. Mounding his, instead of utilizing a rolling pin, and then using a much larger cutter resulted in a larger crispier biscuit than the light fluffy Loveless version.

Once Flay's were off to the oven, then they began the jam process. Placing only fruit and sugar into a pot made for a simple recipe for Carol Ellison. While Flay could be seen with bowl after bowl of ingredients, causing Ellison to pick on the fact that he was probably using pectin among other seemingly unnatural items. And even while the jam was cooking, the two were still making even more biscuits to serve to the hungry crowd. While Ellison served her jam straight from the still cooking pot, Flay had placed his in an ice bath for fear that it might be too hot to be immediately eaten. Flay could also been seen taking bites from his own biscuits prior to each of them tasting the others recipes. Once finally time to test their competitor's biscuits and jam, Carol Ellison responded with "it's good" to Flay's creation. Flay seemed almost frightened with the first taste realizing why Ellison is called "The Biscuit Lady," revealing that he thought it was really an incredible biscuit.

Country singer, Luke Bryan was originally scheduled to appear as a guest judge, along with professional Chef Martha Stamps, but flight problems caused him to be stranded in Atlanta, Georgia with no way to make it in time for the judging. Fellow country singer, Eric Church filled in for the disappointed Bryan. Church appeared slightly fearful of making the wrong choice especially with knowing that Ellison was a fan favorite of the locals. We won't reveal the winner here, you'll just have to catch the show when it airs on the Food Network.

Article Written & Submitted by Michelle Durham