have you tried their never-ending possible it never ends olive garden is a favorite restaurant
for many and not just because of the unlimited breadsticks but did you know there are some
crazy mysteries hidden behind those kitchen doors well here are 10 astonishing secrets olive garden
doesn't want you to know the olive garden cooking school is a sham welcome to chef neri's kitchen
in italy where she teaches olive garden chefs the olive garden has been known to boast about
its authentic italian cuisine after all the chefs get to travel to an exclusive training program at
the culinary institute of tuscany to brush up on their skills and learn the most authentic italian
cooking secrets but apparently the fact that the so-called school is in tuscany might be the most
authentically italian part about it and we really shouldn't be that surprised the name
the culinary institute of tuscany is suspiciously english they definitely do send a handful of
students to tuscany every year that part isn't a lie but learning takes a backseat on this trip
they also don't own the location it is a hotel with an attached restaurant that they rent during
their off season each year a selection of managers chefs and other staff are chosen to attend while
there they go to a few workshops but spend most of their time sightseeing everything is paid for
by the company and they don't even have to claim it as holiday time while there's nothing wrong
with a company boasting that some employees get a free work trip to tuscany every once in a while
it's a bit deceiving that they tout this as a training opportunity to claim authenticity
at their restaurants the unlimited breadsticks are given out in moderation you're gonna finish
your endless bread basket right now we'd be lying if we said that breadsticks weren't one
of the most delicious parts of the olive garden experience who doesn't want an endless supply of
bread to soak up all that scrumptious sauce you are greeted by freshly cooked delectably garlic
salted bread from the second you arrive and the best part is that you know it won't have to end
until you leave though they will continue to deliver more throughout your meal they won't
exactly bring you a whole basket at a time the restaurant might be nice but they're not that
generous the first breadstick delivery will contain one stick per person plus one extra
since there's more bread than people this seems super generous the second delivery will only
have one per person though and if you want more you'll have to finish what's on the table first
hopefully you have an ambitious waiter if you want a lot of breadsticks and don't think you
can get away with only ordering breadsticks either they are not allowed to drop off the second basket
until you order really they're not even supposed to give you the first basket until you've ordered
but not everywhere does that some places know there will be trouble if they try to hold back
the golden sticks for too long the pasta isn't cooked fresh i'll pay my check walk straight into
the kitchen and shoot the cook now this one's a real surprise how can a restaurant whose specialty
is pasta cheat while making it they absolutely can and they absolutely do instead of cooking
the pasta when it's ordered olive garden chefs pre-cook a ton of it in the morning until it's
al dente then they immediately throw it on ice so it doesn't finish cooking through once someone
orders pasta they just pop it in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes to finish it off so really
it could be worse at least it's partially cooked fresh who cares when it's doused in a deliciously
creamy sauce anyways nobody cares man while it's obviously a slight time saver in the kitchen it's
hard to believe it makes a huge difference overall they must have time to throw on a pot of spaghetti
every once in a while right unfortunately this trick's not the only one up the olive garden's
sleeve at least their breadsticks are baked fresh and that's what really matters olive garden's
rebrand didn't go as hoped olive garden we're all family here in 2014 olive garden's popularity was
waning so they decided a rebrand was an order they called it a brand renaissance because they wanted
to entirely redefine what olive garden could be the most significant change was a new logo
it went from being a rustic italian-inspired design to a stark modern cursive font logo
somehow by attempting to refine their logo and show more sophistication they made it
look cheaper blander and maybe just a little blah other than that there were some new menu items
and price changes but it was just the same old olive garden for the most part the show goes on
unfortunately for olive garden the unimpressive change did have an impressively immediate fallout
overnight their stocks dropped by five percent not too shabby for a company that thought they
were making giant strides to change the public's perception of them maybe next time they'll try for
a positive change instead of blindly believing that change for the sake of changing is a good
thing many items are microwaved in the olive garden ah because when you're there you're family
who knew that the secret to being a professional chef is knowing how to use a microwave while not
everything is microwaved it is rumored that more things are microwaved at olive garden than they
care to advertise because really who wants to promote that they might not serve everything
at the peak of freshness for one the desserts aren't made fresh neither are the dipping sauces
for these the microwave is the first choice reheating tool disgusting how about the veggies
and meat do we know for sure that all of the real food is made traditionally on the stovetop
nope exactly what goes on in that kitchen is a well-kept secret and they really don't want us to
know this can only mean one thing they microwave more than you'd think and they will never
tell you about it but is that really so bad this is the olive garden after all and while there
certainly are practical reasons to use a microwave in a professional kitchen you can't help but feel
cheated knowing that they could have just given you the whole meal in a ready-to-eat doggy bag
as soon as you ordered it tried to dodge paying benefits by making staff part-time we were out at
the olive garden for dinner which was lovely the olive garden secrets aren't all found in
their food some of them are tied to their business practices in 2012 just before olive garden would
have to start paying full-time employees health insurance because of the affordable care act
the owner had a brilliant idea why not have more part-time employees part-time employees weren't
eligible for the same benefits as full-time employees so the company could save a lot of money
just by switching up its staffing practices they first tried it out in a few areas as an experiment
to see the response unsurprisingly it wasn't a popular choice among the workers what a surprise
that people didn't like having their hours cut back and losing the prospect of potential health
benefits in the process you shut down after a few months of dissatisfaction the company agreed
to not cut any current full-time staff below the 30-hour a week full-time threshold for the time
being they could instead encourage hiring new part-time employees when the time came that way
they didn't have to break the bad news to any previously hired staff most restaurants have
a high staff turnover rate anyways and new hires won't be nearly as picky business 101
to keep employees happy it's best to just change the rules for new hires instead of pulling the
rug out from your current employees they had a questionable tipping scheme you don't tip
you don't fit tiffin has long been a highly contested aspect of the restaurant business
why should a company have to fully pay their employees when the customers are literally handing
them money obviously messing with a waiter's tips is a touchy subject the olive garden had
a great idea to lower their daily expenses though and messing with tips is precisely what they did
in the u.s staff who get tipped have a lower than usual minimum wage so if more staff members get
tips fewer people have to get paid a full minimum wage so why not somehow figure out how to get more
staff declaring tips fighting for tips who's going who's going first obviously splitting tips was the
perfect solution olive garden made a new rule that required tipped staff to share their tips with
other team members such as bussers and bartenders with more staff members earning tips the company
could save a bundle in wages while also looking like the good guys isn't it good for these other
positions to get a share of the tips too it's incredible how some businesses have figured out
how to pay people less and somehow still come out looking like the good guys most people saw
right through this one though a good deal for everyone is only a good deal if everyone comes
out ahead the epic never-ending pasta pass was an epic failure you never have to pay for anything
look at that americans love never ending anything and everything and olive garden thought their
next big success would be never ending pasta it paired perfectly with their never-ending
breadsticks and never-ending smiles the smiles brought on by never-ending pasta were not
never-ending though those smiles turned to headaches as soon as they found out this idea was
a little better in theory than it was in practice the pass was simple for a hundred dollars a person
could get seven weeks of unlimited pasta however because scarcity is critical for special offers
only a thousand customers would be able to get their hands on one of these magical coupons
this promotion was perfect in three ways it was for a limited time the numbers were limited and
it was an incredible discount the company forgot about one thing though it was a fantastic discount
and everyone wanted one the deal went live at 3 pm and there were so many website visitors that
they crashed the site before the passes even went on sale thankfully they managed to get the site
working again but many customers still reported issues with the site crashing within the first 30
minutes of the promotion there were about 500 000 visitors to the site now that's a lot of unhappy
customers the fettuccine alfredo is more weight than work that alfredo really hit the spot he
just said that about the meat sauce different dish different spot some kitchen secrets are dodgy but
some are just plain offensive for example did you know that the olive garden fettuccine alfredo
takes almost no time to make like less than a minute so why does it cost so much apparently this
dish may taste like a luxury meal but it's a pretty speedy creation in the kitchen
just reheat the pasta slap on some sauce and you have a bonafide italian delicacy
delicioso it's the perfect meal to accompany a game of super mario but really if something
takes less than a minute to make should it really cost that much more than fast food fettuccine with
alfredo when you go to mcdonald's you at least have to wait for them to fry the burger at the
garden this dish is so fast that they usually try to slow down the order so it's not as obvious
though you might be a little disappointed by the creative side of this dish it's still not really
an all out flop it's pretty hard to complain about warm creamy garlicky carb loaded deliciousness
cooks don't cook pasta in salted water this is the ultimate mind-blowingly sketchy thing about
the olive gardens cooking they break the golden rule of pasta every day everyone knows the pasta
should always be cooked in salted water it's the only way to perfectly season the pasta
but not at all of garden apparently they got tired of the salt ruining their pots so they decided
that the best solution was to start cooking pasta in plain water is that even legal so if you've
ever questioned the pasta at olive garden you're not wrong the pasta has been cooked incorrectly
and anyone used to genuine italian cooking would be absolutely mortified pasta should be
cooked in salted water always and hey even martha stewart says so we're serving up more great videos
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