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..................
They are so cute. I feel the same way when I go to "Japanese" restaurants here in the US. After visiting Rome for 8 days, I got a great appreciation for the simple but expertly made pasta, pastries, and pizzas. I can't wait to go back!
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.
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.
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" !!!! :-)
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.
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.
All my Hispanic students here in Texas think Olive Garden is such a great authentic Italian restaurant and they keep telling me to go to eat it and I keep explaining to them that I have lived 4 years of my life in Italy and there's no way I'm going to go into that restaurant and touch that stuff
“Maybe if the Nonna has Alzheimer’s.” I almost fell out of my chair when she said that. I used to love the Olive Garden, or I did until I started to deal with Italian electrical contractors on a daily basis. They introduced me to real Italian food, and once you’ve had the real deal, you can’t go back to your old ways.
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.
Three of my grandparents came to America from Italy, and my last name is the name of a town in Calabria. I think my cousin’s son had it right when he called Olive Garden “the McDonald’s of Italian food.”🤣🤣
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.
Growing up in the US, my parents would rather have taken me to a morgue, than take me to Olive Garden, and they never once did. I went with friends in college once, it’s like the Chili’s of Italian food, everything is probably frozen and heated up just like any other fast food joint. If I was starving tho, as people I have seen while doing missions in Haiti, I would think this place was close to heaven, but I digress. If Olive Garden is the best Italian place in your town, don’t eat Italian food in your town. 😂
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 :-)
Real Alfredo is an Italian dish invented in Rome about 100 years ago. Unfortunately, Americans don't really know what Alfredo is but think any dairy cream white sauce is - which it isn't, but it is Italian.
I worked at the Olive garden 2001-2003. At that time they were working closely with the culinary institute in Italy and were trying to come up with more authentic dishes. The result were very good. The problem was that the customers were not interested at all, so they went with what would sell (Alfredo everything!)
Hi Thomas, I don't doubt that Olive Garden management told you this, but actually, that was the company line that they told everyone. What they actually did was a contract with a hotel and restaurant in the town of Castellina in Chianti that is located on a vineyard. The contract was such that each year Olive Garden would send 10 managers as an employee incentive on a trip to Italy in the off-season, when the hotel/restaurant was otherwise closed. During this trip, they would get some brief tips here and there about Italian food, but not actual cooking. The biggest thing was that at some poiint each of them was to pose for some pictures with the "chef" to use in press releases when they got home. These managers were also supposed to dress up in a Chef coat at their local restaurants during promotions after returning and shring their press releases (depending on which dish Olive Garden was promoting as the new recipe from the nonna), but none of those "specials" were actually even eaten while in Italy, let alone taught or served. Additionally, Olive Garden was allowed to use the imagery of the property (and a little temporary sign with their logo) for marketing, menu graphics, etc. The "nonna" in the commercials was not real. There is no "culinary institute" there, and there was no attempt to come up with new dishes. A great examnple is the commercial clip in the video that says she taught them her secrets on how to make "Chicken Marsala." That is NOT an Italian dish, and the closest thing to it would not come from a Nonna in Tuscany, but from Sicily. Chicken Marsala is a loose American interpretation of a Sicilian dish. The whole campaign was simply one part corporate incentive trip, and one part VERY sketchy marketing. I guarantee you will not find a single dish that even closely resembles the dishes in the "Culinary Institute" commercials at the restaurant there. I can say this with enough authority that I live fairly close to the place, and have many friends that know them, and this agreement was the source of many laughs among the locals in the area. It was a great source of humor for us, because our company ACTUALLY does what they advertised.
I’m Italian and I’ve been living in USA for 13 years, I have to admit that at first I thought that the American people simply didn’t know how to eat well and that they couldn’t appreciate good food. Then, when I started to have American friends over for dinner, I had to change my mind. American people can recognize when the food is fresh, well cooked and the best ingredients are picked. They can appreciate the real Italian food over Italian American food, and after they have a taste of it it’s difficult for them to go back. I think that a restaurant that serves real Italian food would be much appreciated from the American public, I really don’t buy the story that Olive Garden is selling, that the public didn’t like the real recipes, maybe they were cooking them wrong or possibly they simply decided to save money on the ingredients and or to simplify and speed up the job of their cooks.
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.
These people were sooo funny. My grandparents were from Naples but I was definitely not raised Italian - we spoke English and ate a lot of fast food. I kinda resent that. I feel cheated out of having a great cultural background.
Let me fill you in My entire family is from Italy. I grew up in an Italin neighborhood and didn't speak English or eat any American food until I was 6 years old. My grandmother would get up at 4 in the morning to cook. On holidays, it was two days to prepare for Christmas dinner with friends and food being served nonstop for a day and a half. I tried to replicate it as an adult but it was like a Roman bacchanalia. Too much food!
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!
So happy to watch this. I've visited The Olive Garden only twice in the mid 1990s. Looks this couple, i couldn't believe how completely bland the food tasted, and i we've been a second time thinking i had missed something on the first. Nope. So sad that 30 years later they haven't improved. What a disgrace, and yet they remain a successful business.
As an italian american olive garden makesme sad. Please take these poor people to a good itaian restaurant in brooklyn or bring them to my house where i will cook them real italian food. Please people dont think olive garden hsd anything to do with real italian food. Its like taking these people to McDonald's and temming them its great steak😢
It was all in good fun. We took them because they had heard of it, since we do so many cooking classes in Italy, and she is one of the chef instructors. The reality is that to have what WE consider as decent Italian in the US, we need to cook at home, and that is mostly because in the US we don't have the same quality of ingredients (even in Brooklyn). That said, there were LOTS of other things they loved here :-)
fun fact, italians like mcdonald, i eat there 2 to 4 times a year. By the looks of these "dishes" mcdonald has not only a better taste, it's also healtier 😂
The woman was so obnoxious and overbearing. I guess she wears the pants in the relationship. For corporate food, Olive Garden is decent. I rather go there for dinner than other places. I find many of their dishes are tasty. She needs to realize that this is not a small bistro where the family owns and everyone is involved. I agree some Italian food is gross like octopus, snails, casu matzu (cheese infested with worms), Bovine stomachs/lungs, broccoli rabe, eating songbirds (bones and all) and squid ect.. Keep in mind Italian food is my favorite but I think this woman is overly critical.
It’s mostly about tradition. Protein such as chicken, meat, and fish have always been a luxury in a sense to other countries, so it’s not something that is used to being seen in a pasta dish. In Italy basic ingredients are used, which allows them to focus on the quality and authenticity of those ingredients instead of the quantity used. As before, they have lived on emphasizing the flavors on a dish instead of creating new flavors by mixing a bunch of others, so when they try meals from Olive Garden, their description for them is mostly “inedible”, “tasteless” , or “indescribable”
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 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.
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. 😁
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!!!"
It's nauseating. Went once for a "send off" lunch that was thrown for me by co-workers. As a person of 100% Italian descent, it was offended and would never set foot in the place willingly. The "breadsticks' are like little baseball bats...UGH!
I don’t know how many Americans think this is authentic Italian food, I think they just like it better. Americans love Alfredo, love chicken on pasta, love pasta that is just over aldente, and love different flavors mixed together. 🤷🏻♀️
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!
In Sicily that coffe would be defined as “acqua di polpo” that basically is the water where you boiled the octopus, any Sicilian would deep the teaspoon mimicking the search of one of the octopus leg. It’s a joke that we do when we are given a watery espresso.
Years ago me and the kid decided to make a real Italian lasagna. A Dutch oven, $80 of top shelf ingredients and 3 hours later we had a 8x11 pan. My gosh that was good. Olive Garden isn’t gonna do that. Time and good ingredients are the secret.
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!
I've never been to OG, and I always thought, well, probably they just imitate some Italian recipes with a bit of adaptation to the Unitedstatian palate. Then I saw this video. If I had to make an example of how I perceived those dishes, I'd say that probably I felt what a US citizen would feel seeing a dish called "fried hamburger soup" that is made with 10-15 different ingredients that usually are from entirely different contexts and that no one would even think they can be matched in the same meal, let alone the same dish. In two words: really bizarre. P.S.: Don't get me wrong, maybe those dishes are tasty (even though I personally doubt I'd like any of those) but what I don't get is how they can get away with calling that strange stuff "Italian", when there is not even the slightest resemblance to any Italian dish I've ever seen or heard off (I was born and raised in Italy). They could call it Chinese, or Swedish, or Martian, and the distance from the real thing would be the same.
This is a load of BS. You take a bunch of grouchy Italian pensioners and sure, they won't like the food, but who the hell cares? The important thing is that YOU like it! I love Olive Garden and eat there whenever I am in the US.
First, you will never find an Italian that likes Olive Garden, regardless of age. Second, no judgment for people that LIKE it. We all have different tastes, and that is perfectly fine. However, if you are a major corporation that wants to advertise that you serve authentic Italian food, and bring your recipes from Italy, it kinda needs to be true, right? If OG advertised "Italian Inspired Food", there would be no issue, because THAT would be honest.
Try to get American bbq or Tex Mex in Italy. You will die of starvation. Are they trying to prove a point? When dining while traveling, don’t look for what you eat at home!!
Michael, Paola... I am the one to give you the first thumbs down... I had to... I was laughing so hard I not only spit my tea out on my monitor and keyboard, I pee'd my pants! My heavens.. Carla & Sergio, are so funny! What a pair! :-D I am going to forward this video to a couple of folks I work with. I tease them about the "Olive Garden". Okay, gave you a thumbs up! I hope you are back in Florida at the end of September, as I will be in Orlando for my daughter's "makeup" covid wedding at the Wedding Chapel at Epcot. But do know my thumbs down is really 10 thumbs up. I have seen your FB photos of your place in Soriano... It is an absolute slice of heaven!
Hey Richard :-). You can always make it a thumbs up :-). Turns out we will be in Italy end of September. Get back in mid October. Soooo sorry we will miss you :-(
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".
As an Italian-American myself, why would anyone subject real Italians to Olive Garden? My friend and I call it Seafood Denny's. Taco Bell is Mexican Denny's.
@@travelcdv OK, fair enough. But did you tell them this is not technically Italian-American food? This is 'how cheap can we make Italian food and mass market it'. Please please please say yes. 🤣
@@MJ19438 Oh, FOR SURE!! We do cooking vacations in Italy, mostly for North Americans, so they had head about it and how much we make fun of OG. She teaches all of the cooking classes at one of our locations. But, there is a reason we take issue with Olive Garden and not other chains like Buca di Beppo or Maggiano's. Those make it very clear that they are "Italian-Inspired" or "Italian-Immigrant" food. OH actually advertises themselves as the real thing, even going so fart as to say that they send their chefs to Italy to train and bring back recipes. Also, they LOVED lots of the other food they had here. This was just us having some fun 🙂
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.
Just like in every clip, I’ve seen more Italians try Olive Garden. They all bitch it does it taste like Home and it’s not Home. It’s in America in a restaurant. You need to lighten up and just try to enjoy it. Don’t be so critical of everything.
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.
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 UA-cam.
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
LOL! "It tastes like nothing" Welcome to Olive Garden!!!🤣
they don't salt their pasta water to make the pots last longer
"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."
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..................
While she was complaining about it the husband was chowing down!!😂
Just get the endless salad and soup for gods sake😂😂😂😂😂
The sense of humor of people from Rome and Lazio in general is deadly! 😅
They are so cute. I feel the same way when I go to "Japanese" restaurants here in the US. After visiting Rome for 8 days, I got a great appreciation for the simple but expertly made pasta, pastries, and pizzas. I can't wait to go back!
This made my night!...LOL
Totally agree with everything they said.
the old couple have my jaws hurting from laughing so hard😆🤣😅😂
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.
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’ll give them credit for trying it
Funny video
I’m only 1/4 Italian, but if I worked at Olive Garden and an Italian family came in, I would warn them!
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" !!!! :-)
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.
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
Thanks for posting it was very interesting.
these people are great, pure humanity, I wish more people were like that
All my Hispanic students here in Texas think Olive Garden is such a great authentic Italian restaurant and they keep telling me to go to eat it and I keep explaining to them that I have lived 4 years of my life in Italy and there's no way I'm going to go into that restaurant and touch that stuff
“Maybe if the Nonna has Alzheimer’s.” I almost fell out of my chair when she said that.
I used to love the Olive Garden, or I did until I started to deal with Italian electrical contractors on a daily basis. They introduced me to real Italian food, and once you’ve had the real deal, you can’t go back to your old ways.
Olive Garden is that what a drunk Chef does after he comes home from a nighout. I'd rather eat McDonalds at this point.
I agree! It’s just a cheaper alternative not good Italian food!
I love to see them being authentic
Alfredo in Italy is just a name!!!😂😂😂
I knew this would interesting but didn't expect to laugh till I cried.
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 🙂
Everything in Olive Garden tastes like Americanized fast food.
Three of my grandparents came to America from Italy, and my last name is the name of a town in Calabria. I think my cousin’s son had it right when he called Olive Garden “the McDonald’s of Italian food.”🤣🤣
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.
Italian food is simple but packed with amazing punches. So delicious! Unfortunately OG doesn’t even come near. Italians know the foods.
Growing up in the US, my parents would rather have taken me to a morgue, than take me to Olive Garden, and they never once did. I went with friends in college once, it’s like the Chili’s of Italian food, everything is probably frozen and heated up just like any other fast food joint. If I was starving tho, as people I have seen while doing missions in Haiti, I would think this place was close to heaven, but I digress. If Olive Garden is the best Italian place in your town, don’t eat Italian food in your town. 😂
I love these people. Must be the Italian in me. I just don't understand how the guy isn't cracking up when she says I wouldn't feed this to my dog.
This video is fantastic. Love the commentary on the food. I want to hang out with these two. I take my glasses off as well when things get serious.😂😂
They are not funny at all. They are what we call down south RUDE COMPANY!!!!
Thank you, so disrespectful. Who poors coffee into their soup? So fucking rude.
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
This was so great. I really needed a good laugh today. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The Nona with Alzheimer's! HAHAHAHA! Hilarious, I spit out my drink with that one!
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 :-)
Real Alfredo is an Italian dish invented in Rome about 100 years ago. Unfortunately, Americans don't really know what Alfredo is but think any dairy cream white sauce is - which it isn't, but it is Italian.
She’s in for a very unpleasant surprise
I worked at the Olive garden 2001-2003. At that time they were working closely with the culinary institute in Italy and were trying to come up with more authentic dishes. The result were very good. The problem was that the customers were not interested at all, so they went with what would sell (Alfredo everything!)
Hi Thomas, I don't doubt that Olive Garden management told you this, but actually, that was the company line that they told everyone. What they actually did was a contract with a hotel and restaurant in the town of Castellina in Chianti that is located on a vineyard. The contract was such that each year Olive Garden would send 10 managers as an employee incentive on a trip to Italy in the off-season, when the hotel/restaurant was otherwise closed. During this trip, they would get some brief tips here and there about Italian food, but not actual cooking. The biggest thing was that at some poiint each of them was to pose for some pictures with the "chef" to use in press releases when they got home. These managers were also supposed to dress up in a Chef coat at their local restaurants during promotions after returning and shring their press releases (depending on which dish Olive Garden was promoting as the new recipe from the nonna), but none of those "specials" were actually even eaten while in Italy, let alone taught or served. Additionally, Olive Garden was allowed to use the imagery of the property (and a little temporary sign with their logo) for marketing, menu graphics, etc. The "nonna" in the commercials was not real. There is no "culinary institute" there, and there was no attempt to come up with new dishes. A great examnple is the commercial clip in the video that says she taught them her secrets on how to make "Chicken Marsala." That is NOT an Italian dish, and the closest thing to it would not come from a Nonna in Tuscany, but from Sicily. Chicken Marsala is a loose American interpretation of a Sicilian dish. The whole campaign was simply one part corporate incentive trip, and one part VERY sketchy marketing. I guarantee you will not find a single dish that even closely resembles the dishes in the "Culinary Institute" commercials at the restaurant there. I can say this with enough authority that I live fairly close to the place, and have many friends that know them, and this agreement was the source of many laughs among the locals in the area. It was a great source of humor for us, because our company ACTUALLY does what they advertised.
E allora...w alfredooooooo!!!!!!😂😂😂🤦
I’m Italian and I’ve been living in USA for 13 years, I have to admit that at first I thought that the American people simply didn’t know how to eat well and that they couldn’t appreciate good food. Then, when I started to have American friends over for dinner, I had to change my mind. American people can recognize when the food is fresh, well cooked and the best ingredients are picked. They can appreciate the real Italian food over Italian American food, and after they have a taste of it it’s difficult for them to go back. I think that a restaurant that serves real Italian food would be much appreciated from the American public, I really don’t buy the story that Olive Garden is selling, that the public didn’t like the real recipes, maybe they were cooking them wrong or possibly they simply decided to save money on the ingredients and or to simplify and speed up the job of their cooks.
I under cook pasta and finish cooking it in whatever sauce i make.
Just say you know how to cook... I'd bet that if OG served al dente pasta, their "clientele" would send it back as "raw".
This is quality entertainment 😂
"Maybe the Nonna has Alzheimers" - hahaha
That is why they refered to the German Doctor. Dr. Alzheimer :-)
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.
I grew up in an Italian Family, watching Italian Films
These people were sooo funny. My grandparents were from Naples but I was definitely not raised Italian - we spoke English and ate a lot of fast food. I kinda resent that. I feel cheated out of having a great cultural background.
Let me fill you in My entire family is from Italy. I grew up in an Italin neighborhood and didn't speak English or eat any American food until I was 6 years old. My grandmother would get up at 4 in the morning to cook. On holidays, it was two days to prepare for Christmas dinner with friends and food being served nonstop for a day and a half. I tried to replicate it as an adult but it was like a Roman bacchanalia. Too much food!
"Finalmente la cucina italiana! Che bello!"
*Migliori 10 momenti prima del disastro*
This made me LAAAAAAUGH!😂 So awesome!
It also made me miss my friends and time in Soriano!
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!
Very funny. BTW, did they try a good Italian restaurant in the US too?
Yep, our home
So happy to watch this.
I've visited The Olive Garden only twice in the mid 1990s. Looks this couple, i couldn't believe how completely bland the food tasted, and i we've been a second time thinking i had missed something on the first. Nope.
So sad that 30 years later they haven't improved. What a disgrace, and yet they remain a successful business.
Comparing Olive Garden to tasty Italian food is like comparing McDonalds to The Palm
And I am going to the Olive Garden with my daughter tomorrow!…wish me luck!!
to be honest they are very friendly these Italians :D
"Leave the gun.Take the cannoli."
I love me some authentic Italian food. (I lived in Sicily for a time!)
Sergio is my hero - "we must all die from something"
As an italian american olive garden makesme sad. Please take these poor people to a good itaian restaurant in brooklyn or bring them to my house where i will cook them real italian food. Please people dont think olive garden hsd anything to do with real italian food. Its like taking these people to McDonald's and temming them its great steak😢
It was all in good fun. We took them because they had heard of it, since we do so many cooking classes in Italy, and she is one of the chef instructors. The reality is that to have what WE consider as decent Italian in the US, we need to cook at home, and that is mostly because in the US we don't have the same quality of ingredients (even in Brooklyn). That said, there were LOTS of other things they loved here :-)
fun fact, italians like mcdonald, i eat there 2 to 4 times a year. By the looks of these "dishes" mcdonald has not only a better taste, it's also healtier 😂
The woman was so obnoxious and overbearing. I guess she wears the pants in the relationship. For corporate food, Olive Garden is decent. I rather go there for dinner than other places. I find many of their dishes are tasty. She needs to realize that this is not a small bistro where the family owns and everyone is involved. I agree some Italian food is gross like octopus, snails, casu matzu (cheese infested with worms), Bovine stomachs/lungs, broccoli rabe, eating songbirds (bones and all) and squid ect.. Keep in mind Italian food is my favorite but I think this woman is overly critical.
Charming family.....loved this!!!
I ate authentic Italian food in both Rome and Vanice, and was nothing to brag about.
It’s mostly about tradition. Protein such as chicken, meat, and fish have always been a luxury in a sense to other countries, so it’s not something that is used to being seen in a pasta dish. In Italy basic ingredients are used, which allows them to focus on the quality and authenticity of those ingredients instead of the quantity used.
As before, they have lived on emphasizing the flavors on a dish instead of creating new flavors by mixing a bunch of others, so when they try meals from Olive Garden, their description for them is mostly “inedible”, “tasteless” , or “indescribable”
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.
They might think Alfredo must be the most famous person in that restaurant hahaha
Last time I ate at OG was in around 1987. My entree was still frozen in the middle. I NEVER went back.
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.
5:03 this would be a hit in the hospital 😂😂😂😂😂😂
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 😁
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!!!"
It's nauseating. Went once for a "send off" lunch that was thrown for me by co-workers. As a person of 100% Italian descent, it was offended and would never set foot in the place willingly. The "breadsticks' are like little baseball bats...UGH!
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! 🤣
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!!
...and they don't die of food poisoning, at least directly, so it must be good. Basta! Fine della storia!
It's not good, but the old guy was still barking it. I'm a big critic of OG, but it wasn't as bad as they said either.
I don’t know how many Americans think this is authentic Italian food, I think they just like it better. Americans love Alfredo, love chicken on pasta, love pasta that is just over aldente, and love different flavors mixed together. 🤷🏻♀️
Americans don't love Alfredo, they love that garbage white sauce with heavy cream, which is NOT Alfredo. Call it something else.
@ ok, they love what they think is Alfredo.
@@lenoreandreas4000 🤗
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?
OG doesn't make Alfredo.
In Sicily that coffe would be defined as “acqua di polpo” that basically is the water where you boiled the octopus, any Sicilian would deep the teaspoon mimicking the search of one of the octopus leg. It’s a joke that we do when we are given a watery espresso.
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!
What a snooty couple. Nothing good to say visiting Florida. Try this in Italy.
Hilarious!
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.
5:14 this would be a hit in the hospital 🤣🤣
Imagine an America going to italy and ordering Southern comfort food
Years ago me and the kid decided to make a real Italian lasagna. A Dutch oven, $80 of top shelf ingredients and 3 hours later we had a 8x11 pan. My gosh that was good. Olive Garden isn’t gonna do that. Time and good ingredients are the secret.
I suppose they could, but you'd pay 100$ for it. I never go to mid level family restaurant and expect 5 star home cooking.
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!
They roasted the food better than the cooks 💀
I've never been to OG, and I always thought, well, probably they just imitate some Italian recipes with a bit of adaptation to the Unitedstatian palate. Then I saw this video. If I had to make an example of how I perceived those dishes, I'd say that probably I felt what a US citizen would feel seeing a dish called "fried hamburger soup" that is made with 10-15 different ingredients that usually are from entirely different contexts and that no one would even think they can be matched in the same meal, let alone the same dish.
In two words: really bizarre.
P.S.: Don't get me wrong, maybe those dishes are tasty (even though I personally doubt I'd like any of those) but what I don't get is how they can get away with calling that strange stuff "Italian", when there is not even the slightest resemblance to any Italian dish I've ever seen or heard off (I was born and raised in Italy). They could call it Chinese, or Swedish, or Martian, and the distance from the real thing would be the same.
Ma neanche noi italiani che viviamo da anni in America andiamo a mangiare in questi restoranti. ,
R
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.
This is a load of BS. You take a bunch of grouchy Italian pensioners and sure, they won't like the food, but who the hell cares? The important thing is that YOU like it! I love Olive Garden and eat there whenever I am in the US.
First, you will never find an Italian that likes Olive Garden, regardless of age. Second, no judgment for people that LIKE it. We all have different tastes, and that is perfectly fine. However, if you are a major corporation that wants to advertise that you serve authentic Italian food, and bring your recipes from Italy, it kinda needs to be true, right? If OG advertised "Italian Inspired Food", there would be no issue, because THAT would be honest.
@@travelcdv Olive Garden is 'Italian-American', and that's good enough for me. And by the way, I was born in Italy from Italian parents!!
Try to get American bbq or Tex Mex in Italy. You will die of starvation. Are they trying to prove a point? When dining while traveling, don’t look for what you eat at home!!
I think you missed the point of the video.
And what point was that?
I love them. Can I adopt them.
Michael, Paola... I am the one to give you the first thumbs down... I had to... I was laughing so hard I not only spit my tea out on my monitor and keyboard, I pee'd my pants! My heavens.. Carla & Sergio, are so funny! What a pair! :-D I am going to forward this video to a couple of folks I work with. I tease them about the "Olive Garden".
Okay, gave you a thumbs up!
I hope you are back in Florida at the end of September, as I will be in Orlando for my daughter's "makeup" covid wedding at the Wedding Chapel at Epcot. But do know my thumbs down is really 10 thumbs up. I have seen your FB photos of your place in Soriano... It is an absolute slice of heaven!
Hey Richard :-). You can always make it a thumbs up :-). Turns out we will be in Italy end of September. Get back in mid October. Soooo sorry we will miss you :-(
@@travelcdv - Okay.. if you insist! I made it a Thumbs Up!
😀Way to go!
The McDonald's comparison to a good American Hamburger is a great comparison to Olive Garden to good Italian food.
When you're here, you're family.
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".
Olive Garden got horked on the whole time lmfao
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..
As an Italian-American myself, why would anyone subject real Italians to Olive Garden?
My friend and I call it Seafood Denny's. Taco Bell is Mexican Denny's.
Because they are family, and it was so fun!!
@@travelcdv OK, fair enough. But did you tell them this is not technically Italian-American food? This is 'how cheap can we make Italian food and mass market it'. Please please please say yes. 🤣
@@MJ19438 Oh, FOR SURE!! We do cooking vacations in Italy, mostly for North Americans, so they had head about it and how much we make fun of OG. She teaches all of the cooking classes at one of our locations. But, there is a reason we take issue with Olive Garden and not other chains like Buca di Beppo or Maggiano's. Those make it very clear that they are "Italian-Inspired" or "Italian-Immigrant" food. OH actually advertises themselves as the real thing, even going so fart as to say that they send their chefs to Italy to train and bring back recipes. Also, they LOVED lots of the other food they had here. This was just us having some fun 🙂
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.
Just like in every clip, I’ve seen more Italians try Olive Garden. They all bitch it does it taste like Home and it’s not Home. It’s in America in a restaurant. You need to lighten up and just try to enjoy it. Don’t be so critical of everything.
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.
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 UA-cam.
Awesome! That is a great way to do it... straight from the source!
Me too. Once was more than enough 🤯