Cotton candy: The little-known history of Nashville's most famous invention

Nashville's Gray & Dudley executive chef Levon Wallace demonstrates how his restaurant makes cotton candy, which is served after every meal, a tradition for 21c museum hotels. The cotton candy is served in a glass to customers after meals. (Photo: Shelley Mays/The Tennessean )
Nashville's Gray & Dudley executive chef Levon Wallace demonstrates how his restaurant makes cotton candy, which is served after every meal, a tradition for 21c museum hotels. The cotton candy is served in a glass to customers after meals. (Photo: Shelley Mays/The Tennessean )

The Goo Goo Cluster celebrated its 100th anniversary with much deserved fanfare in 2012. Hot chicken is the star of its own festival in Nashville each year. Meat-and-three restaurants are Nashville lunchtime staples almost every day.

And yet, one of Nashville's most consequential culinary breakthroughs has slipped by the wayside, drifting away to the point that many longtime residents aren't even aware it was invented here.

You know it as cotton candy, but in the 1890s, a Nashville dentist - yes, a dentist - and a candymaker partnered to invent a fluffy, sugary treat they called "fairy floss."

Read more at our news partner's website, tennessean.com.

Upcoming Events