These people are from Rome or Lazio region (around Rome). They are born comedians, and they are so funny in general. The joke about Nonna teaching Italian cooking to Olive Garden having Alzheimer's or wasting a match to burn a real Italian restaurant serving this garbage is pure improvisation gold.
@@travelcdv anyway besides the criticism about the music I love your channel, thank you for your contribution to sharing Italian culture with the world.
Yep I've had real authentic Mexican food my daughter is married to a man from Ensenada. And my daughter learned how to cook real authentic Mexican food and when I go to Mexican restaurants that are run by actual Mexicans from mexico. Taco Bell is more of a Tex-Mex
Americanized Mexican food is a sin no matter who makes it. Go to the Mexican neighborhoods to eat Mexican food. Taco Bell is abysmal !!! Makes me throw up and have diarrhea.
My family used to love going to OG when I was a kid (my mom still loves it) but after my Italian professors and friends cooked for me in college I started making my own Italian food and never went to OG again.
What Nonna said about being able to taste everything that is in a dish is so true. On those couple of occasions when I've been to Italy, everything tasted so clean and fresh.
The food in Italy is so incredibly delicious, if you stay away from the tourist places. Even a focaccia from a cart was one of the most memorable bites I ever had.
Your Sicilian other half will laugh his rear off when he sees the clip with the commercial showing the Tuscan "nonna" teaching people to make "Chicken Marsala" !!!! :-)
I love Italian food. Unfortunately it is very very difficult to find true authentic Italian cuisine in America. It is very sad too because if you can find true Blue authentic Italian cuisine you will never I mean never eat American Italian cuisine again. Hands down.
It’s hard to find it in italy too. All italians say that they have “the best family recipe handed down over generations.” Literally these grandparents are just that. Grandparents that think their recipe is the best.
You are correct. Italian-American cuisine is different. When I lived in Sacramento, Ca there was one authentic place. Unfortunately it was hard to get a table and expensive on my income. Not true in Italy.
I'm from a very itailian area so it's so easy to find authentic Itailan spots. There's a few markets with cooks inside them and the price destroys OG as well as taste and authenticity.
I love this couple. I can speak Italian and understand the lingo perfectly. This lady started off saying off saying they had tried a lot of other cuisines but finding an Italian restaurant, finally was wonderful. Does Olive Garden realize that Alfredo doesn't exist in Italy? I like Olive Garden but authentic Italian it isn't!
Yeah, when they visited we took them for Chinese, Thai, Greek, etc. We did warn them advance about Olive Garden, and this was all about having some fun. Trust me, at home we COOKED good Italian :-)
I spent eight (8) years in Italy and visited many cities. Indeed, this video is quite accurate. I have eaten at OG a few times after my tour in Italy, and.......................well..................
I think they’re being a bit overly dramatic. For starters, the pasta OG uses is make in house with 3 ingredients. It’s not supposed to be a deluge of flavour - that’s what the sauce is for. Alfredo is a beloved American sauce - deal with it. She was right - there is marscapone cheese in the tiramisu, it’s made in house and never frozen. All the other deserts are - but not the tiramisu. Also she got overly dramatic about the espresso. It’s coffee from an expensive machine. Not much to screw up. They also waited to long to consume it as the creama was gone.
I can attest to the fact that they were real reactions. As for the pasta, of course it is generally flavorless, but a good pasta does not actually taste like nothing. There is also a consistency factor that makes the pasta feel like glue when overcooked. As for the sauce, part of the issue is that OG lacks ingredient balance. For the sake of authenticity, OK overloads their dishes for American taste... the "more is better" mentality. As for the coffee, an expensive machine does not make a good espresso. A good coffee bean roasted correctly, with even a substandard machine, pulled by someone who knows what they are doing DOES. In the US, we typically extract 3x the water through the coffee compared with an Italian Espresso. Again, more = better mentality. The problem with that is that as you do the extraction, the majority of the flavor is earlier in the extraction, and later what you get is bitter and acidic... no matter how expensive the machine is.
I agree with the OP. These videos of “Mexicans try Taco Bell” “Chinese try Panda Express” etc. Are so overly dramatized. Most Americans know these large chain restaurants aren’t authentic. We go there because it’s affordable convenient and tastes fine. That being said, OG is definitely inconsistent. My problem with this video is that they clearly when in there ready to hate it no matter what. To say it was all terrible or at best “edible” is BS. Honestly if you blind folded them and gave them OG dishes and non-chain American-Italian food dishes from the same area and price range, they would probably struggle guessing what is what. You get what you pay for, plain and simple. Sometimes people just want cheap, greasy, simple food bastardized or not.
I visited Italy many years ago. The food was fabulous! When I got back people offered to take me to the Olive Garden. I just gave a icy stare and explained to them how the Olive Garden is not real Italian food.
@@nhf7170 I recently ordered a bunch of dishes to once and for all decide how good Olive Garden is for myself. Here are my thoughts: Bread sticks, very good. Salad, not extraordinary but good, with very good Italian dressing in a packet. Spaghetti, bland and limp. Tomato sauce, bland. Meatballs, mediocre, can get better at Denny's. Chicken parmisan, quite good. 5 cheese pasta sold cold for reheating later, very good. So it's hit and miss. Far from being as bad as this video says.
As an American with zero Italian heritage, my first memory of Olive Garden was eating there with a friend's family. I shared fettuccine alfredo with my friend and I thought it was absolutely disgusting. I ate it anyway because we were poor and I was taught to eat anything. I felt sick while eating it, and after. I've eaten there a few times as an adult and I still think it's very bad. I think it's given fettuccine alfredo a bad reputation. I make fettuccine alfredo at home for my family and it's amazing! It's so rich that it's a "holiday food" for us, but it's so good. I know it's not "Italian," but I think it deserves a place as Italian American. I only use butter, flour, garlic, cream, and parmigiana reggiano. It tastes like heaven. The Olive Garden version tastes like plastic. When I have to eat at Olive Garden, I eat only the soup, salad, and breadsticks. Those aren't great, but I can eat them without feeling like they're not food.
I’m the same way I can only eat the 🥗 salad and bread 🥖 sticks. I’ve never been to Olive Garden by choice but my job places orders with them now and then. I couldn’t eat the food all I got was terrible heartburn of the small portions I ate only because I was going to working all day that day. Italian food is best cooked at home specially those favorite dishes the family enjoys.
@@ginger942 To get technical, what you are describing is "pasta in bianco" - It is a base dish usually eaten when your stomach is bothering you. Fettucine Alfredo came to be ages ago when some Amnerican actors were at a restaurant in Rome and saw a woman eating it. They asked the owner what she was eating, and he explained that she was his wife, was pregnant, and couldn;t hold anything else down. They tried it and loved it, then asked him for the "recipe" (For an Italian that is like asking for the receipe of buttered toast). Those same actors had it served at parties and hyped up the place in Rome where they had it. Before long, American tourists visiting Rome started frequenting that restaurant, and the owner (Alfredo) saw lots of dollar signs in his eyes. The only place in Italy you can get it is still at the same place, which exists exclusively for Americans. Youcan go there and pay $50 for a dish of pasta that most places ould feel bad charging you for. You just need to know in other places to ask for pasta in bianco, not "Alfredo"
@@travelcdv nope, the original fettuccine Alfredo made by Alfredo La Scrofa is pasta with burro and parmigiano. The original restaurant in Rome where the reciepe come from does like that. Became popular in America but not in Italy, I'm from there and I know what I'm talking about.
@@ginger942 Sorry to pop the bubble, but if I hop in my car right now, I can be there in 40 minutes, have been here for 38 years, and am literally in the business of knowing the history of all regional Italian food, as well as the Italian immigrant implementations of them. In Italy, pasta with burro and parmigiano is called pasta in bianco, and would NEVER be found on a menu in a restaurant, because it is the most basic of basic -- that is except the Alfrredo restaurant in Rome, which is there specifically for American tourists only. Every Italian grows up being served this by their mothers when their stomach is unsettled -- such that if I ask for pasta in bianco in a restaurant, they will ask me if I am not feeling well -- (similar to chicken soup for Americans). It is not a recipe that can be claimed by anyone -- the same that nobody can say they invented chicken soup or buttered toast. That said, you are talking about a restaiurant called "Alfredo alla Scrofa". The person you are refering to is Alfredo Di Lelio. Some Americans had it back in the 1920's at HIS place (as the story goes, his wife was having morning sickness and they saw her eating it... but it was not on the menu since it is just pasta in bianco), and it became known as such when they spread the word and more Americans came for it. He turned it into a marketing scheme for tourists, and good for him for creating a market, and obviously embellished on the story as part of the show for tourists. But truth is truth. The pasta there is made speficially for Americans, as that is who it is marketed to. The pasta is insanely overcooked by Italian standards, they put an insane amount of butter on the pasta in bianco, and you pay 22 Euro for a plate of their famous "dish" becauase of the fame in America. Walk down the road, and ask for pasta in bianco anywhere, and you will get better for 1/3 of the price The simple reality is that if you serve "Alfredo" to ANY Italian, and call it "Alfredo Sauce," they will either laugh or get very confused, and ask you why you are trying to pass pasta in bianco off as a "recipe".
I love Olive Garden! They’ve managed to get a little bit of the more than than 20 different traditional cuisines in Italy and put together a pretty flavorful menu. It’s not a 100% Italian and it’s not your grandma’s cooking (her way), but that’ll be said by Italians themselves about the other traditional cuisines around their own region. Kudos to OG!
That is great that you like it. Keep in mind that this video is not about whether or not people will have subjective taste for it. It is about whether or not it is in any way Italian, since they focus their marketing on selling the idea that it is something authentic, and they have long said they are bringing recipes from Italy. The reality is that you do not actually get a little bit of 20 traditional Italian cuisines at OG by any stretch, nor do you even get one. You get Olive Garden's idea of "Italian-like-Inspired" dishes. A good comparison would be if you went to a restaurant in another country that advertised that they served the best authentic Mexican food, and your nachos were toasted bread with tomato sauce, and your burrito was a pita with melted cheese and boiled chicken. You have every right to like it by all means, but can you call it authentic Mexican food?
I have been to Olive Garden once.I wasn’t impressed.I have never been to a real Italian restaurant.I do like cooking Italian food,and I try to make it like I see it made in Italy on RUclips.
We’ve already seen a ton of these videos where real Italians rate OG and it’s always the same type of reviews. We GET it. OG isn’t real Italian food but it still tastes good to me
@@jonathanswift2251 yes. But we already know that Olive Garden isn’t real Italian food. Have you had REAL Chinese food and not Panda Express ? We all know Panda Express isn’t real Chinese food nor is Taco Bell real Mexican food but it’s still taste good so we can always expect to have REAL Chinese people and REAL Mexican people saying it’s not authentic. WE ALREADY KNOW we don’t need them telling us all that
@@baepple i hate Taco Bell (but I pretty much hate ALL Mexican fast food Ugh) I have to admit I like Panda Express. It's just all sooo sweet sugary tasting...
My mother was Italian. Her parents, godparents, and most of her aunts and uncles were from Italy. Subsequently, I grew up eating homemade everything - marinara sauce, pizza, pasta of all kinds, soups, etc. She never made Alfredo sauce - in her opinion this sauce was non-existent (that's how she was raised, and taught to cook). She never made bolognese sauce. She referred to it as, "dirty sauce." A reagional thing, I suspect. Nevertheless, she was an excellent cook. Everything was homemade. My brother and I would beg her to buy us Spagetti-O's - no way. She'd look at us and say, "Who eats spaghetti out of a can?" As an adult, I finally bought a can and heated then up. I took one mouthful and threw the rest in the garbage. Lol. I've never had a t.v. dinner. We begged for those, as well. The Olive Garden is awful. The couple in this video are hysterical, and their critiques of the food are on point. The food this restaurant tries to pass off as Italian cuisine is laughable. If you want Italian, Mexican, French, Greek, food, etc., go to a privately owned "mom and pop" restaurant and you'll most likely get a more authentic meal. If you want bland fast food, hit up a chain restaurant. I'm going to Italy, again, this September, I can't wait. To me, it's the most beautiful place in the world. I'd like to run into the couple in this video. They'd be a blast to hang out with. Lol.
Yep, she never heard of Alfredo sauce, because there is actually no such thing, except for a tourist trap for Americans in Rome. "Dirty sauce". Nice, I have never heard that, but it is super common for local areas to have their own ways of naming lots of common things. It always amazes me how many regional words there are for a simple loaf of bread :-). As for Spagetti-O's, we had an almost identical thing with our daughter. She wanted Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Ravili, so one day my wife made home-made ravioli for us, and served her Chef Boy-ar-dee. She had one bit and spit it out. Of course, we had some of the real stuff for her, but that ended it! If you happen to get to our area in September (about an hour north of Rome) when you are in Italy, send me a message! We'll have you over for dinner one night!
Yes, this is exactly the point. They advertise in the USA that they bring these recipes from Italy. They even advertise that they send their chefs to learn recipes in Toscana. It is very sad.
I’m totally entranced by her and completely amused by her husband! When you have someone of her expertise, telling you everything that’s wrong with the food it’s best to listen. But it does make me wonder what have I been eating?
It has its place this side of Roma...lol. The older I get the more I appreciate the always crispy fresh salad and soup. I go at least twice a year to be reminded that it still offers better Alfredo than any of the really so so Sicilian style glorified pizza and gravy (red sauced) Italian restaurants in Tucson, Arizona. The few higher end ones are frankly not even close enough to the diversity of real Italian cuisine so glad enough for the consistency of OG. Buon appetito!
My mom got a spaghetti sauce recipe from an Italian women that she worked with and it beats Olive Garden hands down. It should probably be called mariana sauce. We use it with spaghetti and in lasagna. With the spaghetti we cook some with mild Italian sausage and meatballs and some with hot Italian sausage. The only reason that I go to tiramisu, which is probably nothing like I could get in Italy, but since I have nothing to compare it to I like it.
@@travelcdv Thank you for helping me learn something new. I am always on the lookout for things that will educate me. I love trivia games and Questions. Usually 2-3 times a day, I get a trivia question, a history quiz, and a quiz related to travel. I am sure that if a question about marinara sauce I will be able to answer it. You see I had been miss informed by so many things in restaurants and in the store. I am never very happy when I find out that I've miss informed. I am not mad at the person who is educating me, but with the general public that lied to me and kept me from real knowledge. In a way it's my fault because I failed to go to Google and researched it. So once again thank you from the bottom of my heart I really appreciate you helping me to understand the difference.
I have been all over the world. I have had local food. I come back to the U.S. I expect a wonderful surprise. Example: Italian food. I share the sarcasm of the Italians in this episode. I read in one of the comments that cooks spent time with Chefs. But the general public wasn't interested. I was asked to cook Chinese food for a friend of mine. I learned to cook Chinese food the way is done in China. My friend liked the food. The guests who he invited, I learned that night just how ignorant and illiterate many people in the U.S are. To many people of the U.S, processed macaroni with powdered cheese sauce from a box with cut up hotdogs is "WOW!!!! JUST THE BEST!!!" After the food I cooked was insulted by the guests, I learned a good but hard lesson. First, I will never cook for anyone but myself. Second, you can easily pass off dirty dish water and raw sewage to people of the U.S, and they will think, "WOW!!! THIS IS JUST THE BEST!!!"
So they went back to Italy thinking that American Italian food is horrible Instead of making them suffer, they should have been taken to a 4-5 star Italian Restaurant
They can talk all the crap they want; the reality is they have been in business for a long time because despite the jokes, people keep coming back. Is it the best? No, - but it is familiar and comforting to many regular folks. I don’t even go there, but the facts stand. I don’t like the smugness.
There’s no smugness, what there point is, it’s NOT ITALIAN FOOD, it’s AMERICANI NOT ITALIAN. PERIOD !!!!! This is using / robbery towards ITALIAN culture for PROFIT. 😁
Oh big shock. Taking Italians to Olive Garden and watching them complain. Like we haven’t seen this 1 million times already. imagine us going to Italy to an American restaurant. I’m sure we would all complain. I went to an American restaurant in India and it was horrendous. I ordered a hamburger And they told me it was beef. to this day I’m not sure what meat it was but, When I took a bite of it, there was fibers in it because it was not ground properly, so there was something keeping me from pulling my mouth away from the burger. It was like there was a string holding all the meat together, but it wasn’t string. It was like part of the animal. They also had milkshakes. one of the flavors was rose. Totally not American, but I tried it anyway. It was like drinking a bottle of my grandmother’s perfume. 🤮
this is pretty much spot on. The only decent thing I've had here is the bottomless salad bowl but even that is mostly iceberg lettuce. Oh yes, the house wine is good too.
I'm a European and have never experienced one of these Olive Gardens - only heard people joke about them for decades. Now, watching this, I can understand why it's so notorious. This is an italian restaurant like a chinese restaurant in the west "totally" serves chinese food. They should add the Scottish deep-fried Mars bar.
😀 - the great thing about Olive Garden is the food is so bad you'd lose weight instead of gaining the 4-5 lbs i put on in Roma in 5 days. Keep it simple and people will come.
Question: why when they say "Parmigiano Reggiano" in the subtitles do you write "Parmesan"? Parmesan (USA) is a different cheese from Parmigiano Reggiano (Italy). They are two different products. Pay more attention in the videos.
Parmesan is a generic term in the US to refer to "Parmigiano," which in recent years has mostly narrowed to "Parmigiano Reggiano DOP" (as to differentiate from other similar cheese such as Grana. This difference in the US by those that know (most serious foodies) is differentiated in English simply be denoting "Reggiano" and "Grana" - but the generic cheese is still referred to as "Parmesan" in general, then narrowed down to various types. As such, using "Parmesan" jn this context was appropriate. Naturally, if we were doing a cooking video, we would say something to the effect of "make sure your Parmesan cheese is actually Parmigiano Reggiano".
Their first clue should have been the menu was all pictures lmaooo! I get a few photos but when the menu has photos as large as a serving, bells go off making me question why???
I don’t care what “real Italian “. Think of Olive Garden. Olive Garden doesn’t bill its self as authentic Italian. It is American Italian. Pasta pasta pasta it’s all the same. Doesn’t matter if you change the shape it all just pasta.
I was taught how to make pasta from scratch when I was ten. My mom told me someday she's going to be too old to cook so I need to learn how. Was my pleasure when she became frail to cook for her. She did get cravings for KFC when she had dementia. We both gained weight would get it three times a week for her.
What I am learning about these cooking shows is that everybody thinks there’s is the best. I am glad I know how to appreciate food that taste good regardless to who or how it was made. I like Olive Garden and I have been blessed to eat in Italy. Like I said, I like good food period.
Exactly. America has been called the great melting pot, and when people come here, they need to expect that. That things will be a blended version of what was in the home country.
Absolutely. and if I go to a place that says they have Italian Fusion, I expect that. If I go to a place that says "Authentic Italian" I expect THAT. If I go to a place that says "Immigrant Italian" I would expect that. If Olive Garden called themselves an "Italian Inspired" restaurant, that would make sense. But when they say they are bringing their recipes directly from a Nonna in Tuscany, ummmm, no.
I must comment on this and say, yes some feel that this is not real Italian food, but for what is is, it is still pretty tasty. Just about every dish In Olive Garden is pretty tasty to me and I would recommend going there not with the mindset of real Italian food but with otherwise still a tasty cuisine. And I must also say that those that say Taco Bell is not authentic Mexican food, yes they are right. If you want real Mexican food go to a Mexican restaurant. Taco Bell has their won recipe that they have invented and it is very tasty. I love the sauces they have come up with. All items at Taco Bell are very good and tasty. The best compliment I saw was when I went to a Taco Bell here in town and saw a family from Mexico enjoying the Taco Bell food. Bon Appetit.
Of course, but please consider that Taco Bell does not advertise itself to be an Authentic Mexican eatery. OG does. Taco Bell It is Mexican-inspired, and that is honest (like it or not). OG spent YEARS and untold millions advertising specifically that they sent their "chefs" to train in Italy, and used recipes provided by a nonna in Tuscany. This was the cornerstone of their advertising until they got caught. Their "Culinary Institute of Tuscany" was just a place where they rented some rooms at a hotel in the off-season and sent some of their top managers on a trip to Italy to stay there. They paid to have their logo on a small sign the front of the hotel for the photo shoots and commercials, and filmed some B roll for their commercials there. None of them learned there, none of them got recipes from the nonna. It was a sham. But they used this to convey authenticity, and untold numbers of Americans bought it... So much so, that people still ask us (as a company that ACTUALLY does cooking vacations in Italy) where Olive Garden's "school" is. It is not about whether or not you like it. Clearly many do. We would never do a video like this for a place like Maggiano's, as they do not claim to be real. But if OG wants to make that claim, they need to accept pushback.
Actually, even American Coca Cola sucks big time. Here in the States, we use high fructose corn syrup to sweeten the soda while abroad they use sugar or pure can sugar which tastes much better than corn syrup.
Did they serious walk into Olive Garden and expect real Italian food? It is good to see real Italians saying how horrible and watered-down American food is in reality. Also, they're hilarious!
This is hysterical! ..but so true. We cook with our hearts in it. Olive garden is horrible I left the whole meal. It's not italian at all which I knew before eating there I just wanted to see why people it's great.
I've noticed that most of these videos where Italians taste American versions of their cuisine they ALL react with negative comments only. Do you suppose all Italians cook in the exact same manner? I must have missed out on that gene, I like all kinds of food.
Of course, even Italian food is very regional. But there are core commonalities across the board. Pasta is ALWAYS cooked in a certain way. There are no soft breadsticks, Alfredo Sauce does not exist, there are combinations on their menus that no Italian would EVER have, etc. a simple example: Go ANYWHERE in Italy and ask for Spaghetti and Meatballs on the same dish. Nobody will be willing to serve it!
Well I tried once when they first opened and that was the last time. I’m from Newark nj. Ya got it? Lived I Italy 20 years. His ladies funny, love her.
There are a lot of Italians and people of Italian heritage in the U.S. I'm sure if you want to find goo Italian food it is indeed possible....but most Italian restaurants compromise a bit in order to please their American customers palate. It's like I imagine there is some good Pizza somewhere in Italy though I never encountered any that was any better than many of the pizza joints in the U.S. where I've had it. Heck my son makes great homemade pizza!....some of the best I've ever had....and his heritage is Scottish, German and French.
If you wanted your "elitist we are the only country that knows how to cook" food, you should have stayed in Italy. Who needs this supercilious attitude. Go back.
I went to Olive Garden yesterday, and my chicken & gnotti soup had two gnotti in it like in this video. I was left with bland, stale bread, because I did not know I could ask for sauce. The shrimp scampi tasted of nothing, not even wine, except a bit salty (it was piss). The ravioli was flavorless. My meal had no taste in it. Awful, awful, awful. I have had so many bad thoughts that it's kept me up all night. Asians can taste the differences in white rice; Americans can taste the differences in Olive Garden's food, but I cannot. I had trouble finishing the food in an hour. Horrible, horrible, horrible.
I don't mind Olive Garden. I don't compare Olive Garden to Italian food. And I've never had the authentic Italian food experience. If I did I would never return to Olive Garden. I understand these Italians. Everything must be flavorless.
There is not one unified Italian cuisine; there are regional cuisines in Italy. However, even more basic than that, Italians develop their palate at home first, so their "Italian" cooking is really their mother's cooking first, then the town, and then the region. So, this notion of "Italian cooking" in a general sense really doesn't exist except of course in extreme contrast to other countries where the general ingredients will be different.
That is partially correct, there are countless common axioms throughout the country. Italian cuisine is extremely regional, and even within general regions, there are local dishes... and naturally your neighbor will have a different recipe for even the same local dish. The general basics of Italian cooking are common nationwide. So, for example, butter is more common in the north while olive oil is more so in the south, so the same dish will be more butter based in the north and more olive oil in the south. Or more locally popular cheeses will be used in different areas even for generally national dishes. However, there is always a respect for what the original is. For example, Amatriciana comes from an area near Rome, and while a recipe will be different if you get it in Milan, it is also commonly agreed that it will not be as good as it would be in Amatrice. But these differences are generally minor, and when they are different, anyone would outright say "This is not the real thing". But any Italian would instantly tell you that OG does not pass muster as anything that even slightly resembles even a bad version of anything the slightly resembles anything Italian of any region, much less anyone's home kitchen.
I've seen some places offering "American Pizza" in Italy with ketchup and fries as toppings 🙂. If you are in Naples, stick with Neapolitan pizza!! It just dos not get better than that anywhere in the world imho.
Out of all due respect to the Italians in this video, they need to remember, this IS NOT THEIR COUNTRY, SO IF THEY DON'T LIKE OLIVE GARDEN, NOBODY FORCED THEM TO GO
The problem with restaurants like the Olive Garden is the clientele. Their customers are cheap, they’re not willing to pay what you’d really have to pay to get quality ingredients. There’s a reason their cream sauces taste like that. Restaurants like Olive Garden, have to use flour to thicken up their sauces. It’s cheaper than adding the amount of cheese you need to get that consistency. Basically they have to use tricks like that with all their food. I make real soup every weekend. From scratch, broth and all the rest of it, and it ain’t cheap, but you can taste the difference. Places like the Olive Garden use water and throw in a few bullion cubes loaded with salt.
As soon as she said finally Italian i said," Boy, are they going to be disappointed 😂😂!!"
I thought she was joking...
La cucina di Olive Garden fa schifo 🤮🤮🤮🤮 NON È ITALY
"If you try this in Italy they will burn your place down"
"They would be wasting a match..."
Ded.
Amazing humor and video, saluti dall'Italia
"first they would decapitate you...then they would burn the place down"....these two are Hilarious
“Maybe the Nonna has Alzheimer’s.” Almost fell off my chair when she said that. Lol
That's hilarious 😂
That made me Horse Laugh..
My favorite line: "This would be a hit in the hospital."
LOL! "It tastes like nothing" Welcome to Olive Garden!!!🤣
they don't salt their pasta water to make the pots last longer
These people are from Rome or Lazio region (around Rome). They are born comedians, and they are so funny in general. The joke about Nonna teaching Italian cooking to Olive Garden having Alzheimer's or wasting a match to burn a real Italian restaurant serving this garbage is pure improvisation gold.
Yes, Provincia di Viterbo :-)
@@travelcdv anyway besides the criticism about the music I love your channel, thank you for your contribution to sharing Italian culture with the world.
@@giovannisantostasi9615 Thanks 🙂
Don’t find it particularly amusing.
I don't find uppity people to be particularly funny.
I knew this would interesting but didn't expect to laugh till I cried.
the old couple have my jaws hurting from laughing so hard😆🤣😅😂
I think it’s the same thing when we Mexicans go to Taco Bell 😂
Exactly!!! As an American that grew up in Los Angeles, even I feel the same way about Taco Bell :-)
Spot on!!!
Yep I've had real authentic Mexican food my daughter is married to a man from Ensenada. And my daughter learned how to cook real authentic Mexican food and when I go to Mexican restaurants that are run by actual Mexicans from mexico. Taco Bell is more of a Tex-Mex
Americanized Mexican food is a sin no matter who makes it. Go to the Mexican neighborhoods to eat Mexican food. Taco Bell is abysmal !!! Makes me throw up and have diarrhea.
Naw Taco Bell is used so you can go to bathroom. Olive Garden suppose to be kinda upscale rest. It’s missed it’s mark
My family used to love going to OG when I was a kid (my mom still loves it) but after my Italian professors and friends cooked for me in college I started making my own Italian food and never went to OG again.
Teach us. Or please email recipes
@@CharlanaJo Italian food is not always better. For example... I'd much rather have butter on my bread than olive oil.
@@CharlanaJotry looking up Brooklyn Brothers cooking on u tube I'm chef Dom
Real Italians don't eat olive garden that food is horrible
@@dominicksimonetti6726
That’s not true! I enjoy authentic Italian, but I also like Olive Garden occasionally.
While she was complaining about it the husband was chowing down!!😂
What Nonna said about being able to taste everything that is in a dish is so true. On those couple of occasions when I've been to Italy, everything tasted so clean and fresh.
The food in Italy is so incredibly delicious, if you stay away from the tourist places. Even a focaccia from a cart was one of the most memorable bites I ever had.
Yep! I always tell people that as they are walking around in Italy, if they see a menu on English outside a restaurant, keep walking 🙂
This has made my day and going to show it to my other half who is Sicilian and he will laugh falling off his chair tonight!! This couple are great 😊
Your Sicilian other half will laugh his rear off when he sees the clip with the commercial showing the Tuscan "nonna" teaching people to make "Chicken Marsala" !!!! :-)
"Maybe the Nonna has Alzheimers" - hahaha
That is why they refered to the German Doctor. Dr. Alzheimer :-)
I love Italian food. Unfortunately it is very very difficult to find true authentic Italian cuisine in America. It is very sad too because if you can find true Blue authentic Italian cuisine you will never I mean never eat American Italian cuisine again. Hands down.
You can find it on the North East coast or in Chicago if you're interested in trying authentic Italian(short of going to Italy).
It’s hard to find it in italy too. All italians say that they have “the best family recipe handed down over generations.” Literally these grandparents are just that. Grandparents that think their recipe is the best.
You are correct. Italian-American cuisine is different. When I lived in Sacramento, Ca there was one authentic place. Unfortunately it was hard to get a table and expensive on my income. Not true in Italy.
Get it from those New York Italians who think they are Italian but have never been there lol
I'm from a very itailian area so it's so easy to find authentic Itailan spots. There's a few markets with cooks inside them and the price destroys OG as well as taste and authenticity.
Brutal. Imagine them trying some little Caesars pizza 🍕
I think even Americans recognize that as crap
@@davidebrownstl idk man that greasy crap in a box is mighty good is cheap.
"Leave the gun.Take the cannoli."
I love me some authentic Italian food. (I lived in Sicily for a time!)
I love this couple. I can speak Italian and understand the lingo perfectly. This lady started off saying off saying they had tried a lot of other cuisines but finding an Italian restaurant, finally was wonderful. Does Olive Garden realize that Alfredo doesn't exist in Italy? I like Olive Garden but authentic Italian it isn't!
Yeah, when they visited we took them for Chinese, Thai, Greek, etc. We did warn them advance about Olive Garden, and this was all about having some fun. Trust me, at home we COOKED good Italian :-)
She’s in for a very unpleasant surprise
You guys nailed it....only people who know nothing about what real Italian food is...go there. I tried it twice and I've never gone back.
Honestly as an italian I'd be intrested in going to olive garden once if i ever go to the usa, just to taste how it is
to be honest they are very friendly these Italians :D
I spent eight (8) years in Italy and visited many cities. Indeed, this video is quite accurate. I have eaten at OG a few times after my tour in Italy, and.......................well..................
This is quality entertainment 😂
I think they’re being a bit overly dramatic. For starters, the pasta OG uses is make in house with 3 ingredients. It’s not supposed to be a deluge of flavour - that’s what the sauce is for. Alfredo is a beloved American sauce - deal with it. She was right - there is marscapone cheese in the tiramisu, it’s made in house and never frozen. All the other deserts are - but not the tiramisu. Also she got overly dramatic about the espresso. It’s coffee from an expensive machine. Not much to screw up. They also waited to long to consume it as the creama was gone.
I can attest to the fact that they were real reactions. As for the pasta, of course it is generally flavorless, but a good pasta does not actually taste like nothing. There is also a consistency factor that makes the pasta feel like glue when overcooked. As for the sauce, part of the issue is that OG lacks ingredient balance. For the sake of authenticity, OK overloads their dishes for American taste... the "more is better" mentality. As for the coffee, an expensive machine does not make a good espresso. A good coffee bean roasted correctly, with even a substandard machine, pulled by someone who knows what they are doing DOES. In the US, we typically extract 3x the water through the coffee compared with an Italian Espresso. Again, more = better mentality. The problem with that is that as you do the extraction, the majority of the flavor is earlier in the extraction, and later what you get is bitter and acidic... no matter how expensive the machine is.
I agree with the OP. These videos of “Mexicans try Taco Bell” “Chinese try Panda Express” etc. Are so overly dramatized. Most Americans know these large chain restaurants aren’t authentic. We go there because it’s affordable convenient and tastes fine. That being said, OG is definitely inconsistent. My problem with this video is that they clearly when in there ready to hate it no matter what. To say it was all terrible or at best “edible” is BS. Honestly if you blind folded them and gave them OG dishes and non-chain American-Italian food dishes from the same area and price range, they would probably struggle guessing what is what. You get what you pay for, plain and simple. Sometimes people just want cheap, greasy, simple food bastardized or not.
Italian food is simple but packed with amazing punches. So delicious! Unfortunately OG doesn’t even come near. Italians know the foods.
I visited Italy many years ago. The food was fabulous! When I got back people offered to take me to the Olive Garden. I just gave a icy stare and explained to them how the Olive Garden is not real Italian food.
Olive Garden is as Italian as Swiss people are Spanish.
I hope it made you feel good to show them you were too good to eat at Olive Garden like a commoner.
@@moonbeamskies3346 Everybody is too good to eat at Olive Garden.
@@nhf7170 I recently ordered a bunch of dishes to once and for all decide how good Olive Garden is for myself. Here are my thoughts: Bread sticks, very good. Salad, not extraordinary but good, with very good Italian dressing in a packet. Spaghetti, bland and limp. Tomato sauce, bland. Meatballs, mediocre, can get better at Denny's. Chicken parmisan, quite good. 5 cheese pasta sold cold for reheating later, very good. So it's hit and miss. Far from being as bad as this video says.
I once had olive garden.... irredeemable. Have been to Italy. These folks are being too nice actually.
Olive Garden is pretty good but it's not authentic... They are trying to compare it to authentic Italian food and it's way different..
*"This would be a hit in the hospital!"*
Damn, that's a burn ☠️
As an American with zero Italian heritage, my first memory of Olive Garden was eating there with a friend's family. I shared fettuccine alfredo with my friend and I thought it was absolutely disgusting. I ate it anyway because we were poor and I was taught to eat anything. I felt sick while eating it, and after. I've eaten there a few times as an adult and I still think it's very bad. I think it's given fettuccine alfredo a bad reputation. I make fettuccine alfredo at home for my family and it's amazing! It's so rich that it's a "holiday food" for us, but it's so good. I know it's not "Italian," but I think it deserves a place as Italian American. I only use butter, flour, garlic, cream, and parmigiana reggiano. It tastes like heaven. The Olive Garden version tastes like plastic. When I have to eat at Olive Garden, I eat only the soup, salad, and breadsticks. Those aren't great, but I can eat them without feeling like they're not food.
I’m the same way I can only eat the 🥗 salad and bread 🥖 sticks. I’ve never been to Olive Garden by choice but my job places orders with them now and then. I couldn’t eat the food all I got was terrible heartburn of the small portions I ate only because I was going to working all day that day. Italian food is best cooked at home specially those favorite dishes the family enjoys.
Actually, Fettucine Alfredo is from Italy, but not so famous. In Italy it's just butter, parmigiano cheese and pasta. Stop, nothing else.
@@ginger942 To get technical, what you are describing is "pasta in bianco" - It is a base dish usually eaten when your stomach is bothering you. Fettucine Alfredo came to be ages ago when some Amnerican actors were at a restaurant in Rome and saw a woman eating it. They asked the owner what she was eating, and he explained that she was his wife, was pregnant, and couldn;t hold anything else down. They tried it and loved it, then asked him for the "recipe" (For an Italian that is like asking for the receipe of buttered toast). Those same actors had it served at parties and hyped up the place in Rome where they had it. Before long, American tourists visiting Rome started frequenting that restaurant, and the owner (Alfredo) saw lots of dollar signs in his eyes. The only place in Italy you can get it is still at the same place, which exists exclusively for Americans. Youcan go there and pay $50 for a dish of pasta that most places ould feel bad charging you for. You just need to know in other places to ask for pasta in bianco, not "Alfredo"
@@travelcdv nope, the original fettuccine Alfredo made by Alfredo La Scrofa is pasta with burro and parmigiano. The original restaurant in Rome where the reciepe come from does like that. Became popular in America but not in Italy, I'm from there and I know what I'm talking about.
@@ginger942 Sorry to pop the bubble, but if I hop in my car right now, I can be there in 40 minutes, have been here for 38 years, and am literally in the business of knowing the history of all regional Italian food, as well as the Italian immigrant implementations of them. In Italy, pasta with burro and parmigiano is called pasta in bianco, and would NEVER be found on a menu in a restaurant, because it is the most basic of basic -- that is except the Alfrredo restaurant in Rome, which is there specifically for American tourists only. Every Italian grows up being served this by their mothers when their stomach is unsettled -- such that if I ask for pasta in bianco in a restaurant, they will ask me if I am not feeling well -- (similar to chicken soup for Americans). It is not a recipe that can be claimed by anyone -- the same that nobody can say they invented chicken soup or buttered toast. That said, you are talking about a restaiurant called "Alfredo alla Scrofa". The person you are refering to is Alfredo Di Lelio. Some Americans had it back in the 1920's at HIS place (as the story goes, his wife was having morning sickness and they saw her eating it... but it was not on the menu since it is just pasta in bianco), and it became known as such when they spread the word and more Americans came for it. He turned it into a marketing scheme for tourists, and good for him for creating a market, and obviously embellished on the story as part of the show for tourists. But truth is truth. The pasta there is made speficially for Americans, as that is who it is marketed to. The pasta is insanely overcooked by Italian standards, they put an insane amount of butter on the pasta in bianco, and you pay 22 Euro for a plate of their famous "dish" becauase of the fame in America. Walk down the road, and ask for pasta in bianco anywhere, and you will get better for 1/3 of the price The simple reality is that if you serve "Alfredo" to ANY Italian, and call it "Alfredo Sauce," they will either laugh or get very confused, and ask you why you are trying to pass pasta in bianco off as a "recipe".
Thanks for posting it was very interesting.
I love Olive Garden! They’ve managed to get a little bit of the more than than 20 different traditional cuisines in Italy and put together a pretty flavorful menu. It’s not a 100% Italian and it’s not your grandma’s cooking (her way), but that’ll be said by Italians themselves about the other traditional cuisines around their own region. Kudos to OG!
That is great that you like it. Keep in mind that this video is not about whether or not people will have subjective taste for it. It is about whether or not it is in any way Italian, since they focus their marketing on selling the idea that it is something authentic, and they have long said they are bringing recipes from Italy. The reality is that you do not actually get a little bit of 20 traditional Italian cuisines at OG by any stretch, nor do you even get one. You get Olive Garden's idea of "Italian-like-Inspired" dishes. A good comparison would be if you went to a restaurant in another country that advertised that they served the best authentic Mexican food, and your nachos were toasted bread with tomato sauce, and your burrito was a pita with melted cheese and boiled chicken. You have every right to like it by all means, but can you call it authentic Mexican food?
Man, as a former OG employee.... OG is FAKE AF😂.... The only thing Italian about OG is the name😂..... us Americans fall for anything 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
This was so great. I really needed a good laugh today. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
As an Italian having been tortured by eating at The Spaghetti Factory and Olive Garden, I fully sympathize with the bad digestion they suffered!!
Oh yeah! At least the spaghetti factory doesn't claim to bring authentic recipes from Italy :-)
Comparing Olive Garden to tasty Italian food is like comparing McDonalds to The Palm
Hilarious!
Sergio is my hero - "we must all die from something"
I grew up in an Italian Family, watching Italian Films
Honestly, when I think of American cuisine I don't (just) think of Mc's burgers.
This made me LAAAAAAUGH!😂 So awesome!
It also made me miss my friends and time in Soriano!
There was a little Italian place in Ocean beach (San Diego) it was actually good. They always served a knife and fork with their pizza.
The only thing at Olive Garden that isn’t frozen is the salad but they would freeze it if they could.
I have been to Olive Garden once.I wasn’t impressed.I have never been to a real Italian restaurant.I do like cooking Italian food,and I try to make it like I see it made in Italy on RUclips.
Awesome! That is a great way to do it... straight from the source!
Me too. Once was more than enough 🤯
We’ve already seen a ton of these videos where real Italians rate OG and it’s always the same type of reviews. We GET it. OG isn’t real Italian food but it still tastes good to me
have you ever had home cooked italian food or gone to an authentic gourmet italian restaurant?
@@jonathanswift2251 yes. But we already know that Olive Garden isn’t real Italian food. Have you had REAL Chinese food and not Panda Express ? We all know Panda Express isn’t real Chinese food nor is Taco Bell real Mexican food but it’s still taste good so we can always expect to have REAL Chinese people and REAL Mexican people saying it’s not authentic. WE ALREADY KNOW we don’t need them telling us all that
@@baepple i hate Taco Bell (but I pretty much hate ALL Mexican fast food Ugh) I have to admit I like Panda Express. It's just all sooo sweet sugary tasting...
They might think Alfredo must be the most famous person in that restaurant hahaha
My mother was Italian. Her parents, godparents, and most of her aunts and uncles were from Italy. Subsequently, I grew up eating homemade everything - marinara sauce, pizza, pasta of all kinds, soups, etc. She never made Alfredo sauce - in her opinion this sauce was non-existent (that's how she was raised, and taught to cook). She never made bolognese sauce. She referred to it as, "dirty sauce." A reagional thing, I suspect. Nevertheless, she was an excellent cook. Everything was homemade. My brother and I would beg her to buy us Spagetti-O's - no way. She'd look at us and say, "Who eats spaghetti out of a can?" As an adult, I finally bought a can and heated then up. I took one mouthful and threw the rest in the garbage. Lol. I've never had a t.v. dinner. We begged for those, as well. The Olive Garden is awful. The couple in this video are hysterical, and their critiques of the food are on point. The food this restaurant tries to pass off as Italian cuisine is laughable. If you want Italian, Mexican, French, Greek, food, etc., go to a privately owned "mom and pop" restaurant and you'll most likely get a more authentic meal. If you want bland fast food, hit up a chain restaurant. I'm going to Italy, again, this September, I can't wait. To me, it's the most beautiful place in the world. I'd like to run into the couple in this video. They'd be a blast to hang out with. Lol.
Yep, she never heard of Alfredo sauce, because there is actually no such thing, except for a tourist trap for Americans in Rome. "Dirty sauce". Nice, I have never heard that, but it is super common for local areas to have their own ways of naming lots of common things. It always amazes me how many regional words there are for a simple loaf of bread :-). As for Spagetti-O's, we had an almost identical thing with our daughter. She wanted Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Ravili, so one day my wife made home-made ravioli for us, and served her Chef Boy-ar-dee. She had one bit and spit it out. Of course, we had some of the real stuff for her, but that ended it! If you happen to get to our area in September (about an hour north of Rome) when you are in Italy, send me a message! We'll have you over for dinner one night!
never saw these dishes in Italy, never! We donì' use cream and garllic in our kitchen (garlic only little in some dishes, but little!)
Yes, this is exactly the point. They advertise in the USA that they bring these recipes from Italy. They even advertise that they send their chefs to learn recipes in Toscana. It is very sad.
I under cook pasta and finish cooking it in whatever sauce i make.
I’m totally entranced by her and completely amused by her husband! When you have someone of her expertise, telling you everything that’s wrong with the food it’s best to listen.
But it does make me wonder what have I been eating?
I realize Olive Garden isn’t expensive, but canned Chef Boyardee is even cheaper. And it probably tastes the same.
It has its place this side of Roma...lol. The older I get the more I appreciate the always crispy fresh salad and soup. I go at least twice a year to be reminded that it still offers better Alfredo than any of the really so so Sicilian style glorified pizza and gravy (red sauced) Italian restaurants in Tucson, Arizona. The few higher end ones are frankly not even close enough to the diversity of real Italian cuisine so glad enough for the consistency of OG. Buon appetito!
What Alfredo sauce is for you?
Olive Garden kicked our family out because the waitress said she wasn't making enough tips that day.
Olive Garden got horked on the whole time lmfao
Food is food...if it taste good, eat it...if not, spit it out...they didn't spit it out, then you know the food is good! End of story!!
My mom got a spaghetti sauce recipe from an Italian women that she worked with and it beats Olive Garden hands down. It should probably be called mariana sauce. We use it with spaghetti and in lasagna. With the spaghetti we cook some with mild Italian sausage and meatballs and some with hot Italian sausage. The only reason that I go to tiramisu, which is probably nothing like I could get in Italy, but since I have nothing to compare it to I like it.
Actually "marinara" sauce typically includes seafood. Think about it: the root for "marinara" is "marine." Marinara means "of the sea"
@@travelcdv
Thank you for helping me learn something new. I am always on the lookout for things that will educate me. I love trivia games and Questions. Usually 2-3 times a day, I get a trivia question, a history quiz, and a quiz related to travel. I am sure that if a question about marinara sauce I will be able to answer it. You see I had been miss informed by so many things in restaurants and in the store. I am never very happy when I find out that I've miss informed. I am not mad at the person who is educating me, but with the general public that lied to me and kept me from real knowledge. In a way it's my fault because I failed to go to Google and researched it. So once again thank you from the bottom of my heart I really appreciate you helping me to understand the difference.
@@travelcdvhmmm interesting, pizza marinara doesn’t have seafood though
@@krdrums00, I think traditionally it would have some anchovy paste. It adds not so much a sea flavor but just incredible umami.
I have been all over the world. I have had local food. I come back to the U.S. I expect a wonderful surprise. Example: Italian food. I share the sarcasm of the Italians in this episode. I read in one of the comments that cooks spent time with Chefs. But the general public wasn't interested.
I was asked to cook Chinese food for a friend of mine. I learned to cook Chinese food the way is done in China. My friend liked the food. The guests who he invited, I learned that night just how ignorant and illiterate many people in the U.S are. To many people of the U.S, processed macaroni with powdered cheese sauce from a box with cut up hotdogs is "WOW!!!! JUST THE BEST!!!"
After the food I cooked was insulted by the guests, I learned a good but hard lesson. First, I will never cook for anyone but myself. Second, you can easily pass off dirty dish water and raw sewage to people of the U.S, and they will think, "WOW!!! THIS IS JUST THE BEST!!!"
5:03 this would be a hit in the hospital 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Leave and get a Big Mac.
My aunt that's full Italian said olive garden is an insult and disgusting disgrace to Italian food and will never eat there again. I agree with her! 🤣
So they went back to Italy thinking that American Italian food is horrible
Instead of making them suffer, they should have been taken to a 4-5 star Italian Restaurant
They can talk all the crap they want; the reality is they have been in business for a long time because despite the jokes, people keep coming back. Is it the best? No, - but it is familiar and comforting to many regular folks. I don’t even go there, but the facts stand. I don’t like the smugness.
There’s no smugness, what there point is, it’s NOT ITALIAN FOOD, it’s AMERICANI NOT ITALIAN. PERIOD !!!!! This is using / robbery towards ITALIAN culture for PROFIT. 😁
OLIVE GARDEN is robbing another culture for there profit.
I didn’t say it was. And as that is the case, the comparison is null and void. So, all the smack is just that. Smug.
Your deft use of cap locks really had me thinking though…
@@MrTunajohnson 😁
Alfredo in Italy is just a name!!!😂😂😂
Oh big shock. Taking Italians to Olive Garden and watching them complain. Like we haven’t seen this 1 million times already. imagine us going to Italy to an American restaurant. I’m sure we would all complain. I went to an American restaurant in India and it was horrendous. I ordered a hamburger And they told me it was beef. to this day I’m not sure what meat it was but, When I took a bite of it, there was fibers in it because it was not ground properly, so there was something keeping me from pulling my mouth away from the burger. It was like there was a string holding all the meat together, but it wasn’t string. It was like part of the animal. They also had milkshakes. one of the flavors was rose. Totally not American, but I tried it anyway. It was like drinking a bottle of my grandmother’s perfume. 🤮
nice copium
Thank-You for the video. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I hope you took them out for a good ol' greasy American Cheeseburger.
Absolutely!!! They loved Five Guys :-). But over the years when we lived in L.A. we would take Italians to In n Out, and that is ALWAYS a hit!
@@travelcdv Take them to a soul food restaurant, they'd get a kick out of that, for sure!
To be fair, most American are quite aware that The Olive Garden has poor quality food.
A very fun video though!
It used to be good, but now it's just meh!😑
Who else loves dipping the bread sticks in pasta soup
this is pretty much spot on. The only decent thing I've had here is the bottomless salad bowl but even that is mostly iceberg lettuce. Oh yes, the house wine is good too.
What a snooty couple. Nothing good to say visiting Florida. Try this in Italy.
I'm a European and have never experienced one of these Olive Gardens - only heard people joke about them for decades. Now, watching this, I can understand why it's so notorious. This is an italian restaurant like a chinese restaurant in the west "totally" serves chinese food. They should add the Scottish deep-fried Mars bar.
Give it up on the coffee! It is sewer water in Olive Garden
😀 - the great thing about Olive Garden is the food is so bad you'd lose weight instead of gaining the 4-5 lbs i put on in Roma in 5 days. Keep it simple and people will come.
Question: why when they say "Parmigiano Reggiano" in the subtitles do you write "Parmesan"? Parmesan (USA) is a different cheese from Parmigiano Reggiano (Italy). They are two different products. Pay more attention in the videos.
Parmesan is a generic term in the US to refer to "Parmigiano," which in recent years has mostly narrowed to "Parmigiano Reggiano DOP" (as to differentiate from other similar cheese such as Grana. This difference in the US by those that know (most serious foodies) is differentiated in English simply be denoting "Reggiano" and "Grana" - but the generic cheese is still referred to as "Parmesan" in general, then narrowed down to various types. As such, using "Parmesan" jn this context was appropriate. Naturally, if we were doing a cooking video, we would say something to the effect of "make sure your Parmesan cheese is actually Parmigiano Reggiano".
Their first clue should have been the menu was all pictures lmaooo! I get a few photos but when the menu has photos as large as a serving, bells go off making me question why???
When you're here, you're family.
I don’t care what “real Italian “. Think of Olive Garden. Olive Garden doesn’t bill its self as authentic Italian. It is American Italian. Pasta pasta pasta it’s all the same. Doesn’t matter if you change the shape it all just pasta.
Have a look at 9:08
I was taught how to make pasta from scratch when I was ten. My mom told me someday she's going to be too old to cook so I need to learn how. Was my pleasure when she became frail to cook for her. She did get cravings for KFC when she had dementia. We both gained weight would get it three times a week for her.
What I am learning about these cooking shows is that everybody thinks there’s is the best. I am glad I know how to appreciate food that taste good regardless to who or how it was made. I like Olive Garden and I have been blessed to eat in Italy. Like I said, I like good food period.
Exactly. America has been called the great melting pot, and when people come here, they need to expect that. That things will be a blended version of what was in the home country.
Absolutely. and if I go to a place that says they have Italian Fusion, I expect that. If I go to a place that says "Authentic Italian" I expect THAT. If I go to a place that says "Immigrant Italian" I would expect that. If Olive Garden called themselves an "Italian Inspired" restaurant, that would make sense. But when they say they are bringing their recipes directly from a Nonna in Tuscany, ummmm, no.
I must comment on this and say, yes some feel that this is not real Italian food, but for what is is, it is still pretty tasty. Just about every dish In Olive Garden is pretty tasty to me and I would recommend going there not with the mindset of real Italian food but with otherwise still a tasty cuisine. And I must also say that those that say Taco Bell is not authentic Mexican food, yes they are right. If you want real Mexican food go to a Mexican restaurant. Taco Bell has their won recipe that they have invented and it is very tasty. I love the sauces they have come up with.
All items at Taco Bell are very good and tasty. The best compliment I saw was when I went to a Taco Bell here in town and saw a family from Mexico enjoying the Taco Bell food. Bon Appetit.
Of course, but please consider that Taco Bell does not advertise itself to be an Authentic Mexican eatery. OG does. Taco Bell It is Mexican-inspired, and that is honest (like it or not). OG spent YEARS and untold millions advertising specifically that they sent their "chefs" to train in Italy, and used recipes provided by a nonna in Tuscany. This was the cornerstone of their advertising until they got caught. Their "Culinary Institute of Tuscany" was just a place where they rented some rooms at a hotel in the off-season and sent some of their top managers on a trip to Italy to stay there. They paid to have their logo on a small sign the front of the hotel for the photo shoots and commercials, and filmed some B roll for their commercials there. None of them learned there, none of them got recipes from the nonna. It was a sham. But they used this to convey authenticity, and untold numbers of Americans bought it... So much so, that people still ask us (as a company that ACTUALLY does cooking vacations in Italy) where Olive Garden's "school" is. It is not about whether or not you like it. Clearly many do. We would never do a video like this for a place like Maggiano's, as they do not claim to be real. But if OG wants to make that claim, they need to accept pushback.
Actually, even American Coca Cola sucks big time. Here in the States, we use high fructose corn syrup to sweeten the soda while abroad they use sugar or pure can sugar which tastes much better than corn syrup.
People in America believe this food tastes good. But don't know how this food should taste. If they did this restaurant would be empty.
Did they serious walk into Olive Garden and expect real Italian food? It is good to see real Italians saying how horrible and watered-down American food is in reality. Also, they're hilarious!
Americans don't know how real Italian food tastes. But its just wrong that this restaurant says in there commercials that they are authentic
This is hysterical! ..but so true. We cook with our hearts in it. Olive garden is horrible I left the whole meal. It's not italian at all which I knew before eating there I just wanted to see why people it's great.
I've noticed that most of these videos where Italians taste American versions of their cuisine they ALL react with negative comments only. Do you suppose all Italians cook in the exact same manner? I must have missed out on that gene, I like all kinds of food.
There must be a reason, no? The carbonara is the worst offender of all.
Of course, even Italian food is very regional. But there are core commonalities across the board. Pasta is ALWAYS cooked in a certain way. There are no soft breadsticks, Alfredo Sauce does not exist, there are combinations on their menus that no Italian would EVER have, etc. a simple example: Go ANYWHERE in Italy and ask for Spaghetti and Meatballs on the same dish. Nobody will be willing to serve it!
Well I tried once when they first opened and that was the last time. I’m from Newark nj. Ya got it? Lived I Italy 20 years. His ladies funny, love her.
There are a lot of Italians and people of Italian heritage in the U.S. I'm sure if you want to find goo Italian food it is indeed possible....but most Italian restaurants compromise a bit in order to please their American customers palate. It's like I imagine there is some good Pizza somewhere in Italy though I never encountered any that was any better than many of the pizza joints in the U.S. where I've had it. Heck my son makes great homemade pizza!....some of the best I've ever had....and his heritage is Scottish, German and French.
If you wanted your "elitist we are the only country that knows how to cook" food, you should have stayed in Italy. Who needs this supercilious attitude. Go back.
Olive Garden sucks!!!! Thank you paisons for confirming that! LOL!
I went to Olive Garden yesterday, and my chicken & gnotti soup had two gnotti in it like in this video. I was left with bland, stale bread, because I did not know I could ask for sauce. The shrimp scampi tasted of nothing, not even wine, except a bit salty (it was piss). The ravioli was flavorless. My meal had no taste in it. Awful, awful, awful. I have had so many bad thoughts that it's kept me up all night. Asians can taste the differences in white rice; Americans can taste the differences in Olive Garden's food, but I cannot. I had trouble finishing the food in an hour. Horrible, horrible, horrible.
Very funny. BTW, did they try a good Italian restaurant in the US too?
Yep, our home
I don't mind Olive Garden. I don't compare Olive Garden to Italian food. And I've never had the authentic Italian food experience. If I did I would never return to Olive Garden. I understand these Italians. Everything must be flavorless.
There is not one unified Italian cuisine; there are regional cuisines in Italy. However, even more basic than that, Italians develop their palate at home first, so their "Italian" cooking is really their mother's cooking first, then the town, and then the region. So, this notion of "Italian cooking" in a general sense really doesn't exist except of course in extreme contrast to other countries where the general ingredients will be different.
That is partially correct, there are countless common axioms throughout the country. Italian cuisine is extremely regional, and even within general regions, there are local dishes... and naturally your neighbor will have a different recipe for even the same local dish. The general basics of Italian cooking are common nationwide. So, for example, butter is more common in the north while olive oil is more so in the south, so the same dish will be more butter based in the north and more olive oil in the south. Or more locally popular cheeses will be used in different areas even for generally national dishes. However, there is always a respect for what the original is. For example, Amatriciana comes from an area near Rome, and while a recipe will be different if you get it in Milan, it is also commonly agreed that it will not be as good as it would be in Amatrice. But these differences are generally minor, and when they are different, anyone would outright say "This is not the real thing". But any Italian would instantly tell you that OG does not pass muster as anything that even slightly resembles even a bad version of anything the slightly resembles anything Italian of any region, much less anyone's home kitchen.
I've been to Naples and their version of an American pizza is adding peas and an over easy egg in the center of the pizza....lol
I've seen some places offering "American Pizza" in Italy with ketchup and fries as toppings 🙂. If you are in Naples, stick with Neapolitan pizza!! It just dos not get better than that anywhere in the world imho.
Last time I ate at OG was in around 1987. My entree was still frozen in the middle. I NEVER went back.
This is the same as a New Englander eating at Red Lobster.........
You risked getting something disgusting when you walked into Olive Garden.
Out of all due respect to the Italians in this video, they need to remember, this IS NOT THEIR COUNTRY, SO IF THEY DON'T LIKE OLIVE GARDEN, NOBODY FORCED THEM TO GO
They do. This was all in good fun.
The problem with restaurants like the Olive Garden is the clientele. Their customers are cheap, they’re not willing to pay what you’d really have to pay to get quality ingredients.
There’s a reason their cream sauces taste like that. Restaurants like Olive Garden, have to use flour to thicken up their sauces. It’s cheaper than adding the amount of cheese you need to get that consistency. Basically they have to use tricks like that with all their food.
I make real soup every weekend. From scratch, broth and all the rest of it, and it ain’t cheap, but you can taste the difference. Places like the Olive Garden use water and throw in a few bullion cubes loaded with salt.
Ma neanche noi italiani che viviamo da anni in America andiamo a mangiare in questi restoranti. ,
R
That's why olive garden went bankrupt in Canada.
I love them. Can I adopt them.
get real..everyone is a critic..we all know Olive Garden is mass produced, its edible and tastes like American Italian should taste like..