Try the veal, it's the best in the city.
Posted on 03/01/2013 7:11:20 AM PST by US Navy Vet
Fret not, Olive Garden lovers: The “endless” breadsticks aren’t going away.
But new management has big changes in store for the casual dining chain, which touts family-style Italian food and has struggled with declining sales.
The chain's president, Dave George told investors on Tuesday the changes include creating a new logo and toning down its the “Old World Style," the Tuscan-style stonework and wooden archways that have been a signature part of Olive Garden restaurants since 2000.
"You're not going to see stainless steel showing up tomorrow in a Tuscan Farmhouse," George said, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Try the veal, it's the best in the city.
Take the canolli.............
Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
by Michael Moss
4.35 of 5 stars 4.35 · rating details · 55 ratings · 36 reviews
From a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter at The New York Times comes the explosive story of the rise of the processed food industry and its link to the emerging obesity epidemic. Michael Moss reveals how companies use salt, sugar, and fat to addict us and, more important, how we can fight back.
In the spring of 1999 the heads of the world’s largest processed food companies—from Coca-Cola to Nabisco—gathered at Pillsbury headquarters in Minneapolis for a secret meeting. On the agenda: the emerging epidemic of obesity, and what to do about it.
Increasingly, the salt-, sugar-, and fat-laden foods these companies produced were being linked to obesity, and a concerned Kraft executive took the stage to issue a warning: There would be a day of reckoning unless changes were made. This executive then launched into a damning PowerPoint presentation—114 slides in all—making the case that processed food companies could not afford to sit by, idle, as children grew sick and class-action lawyers lurked. To deny the problem, he said, is to court disaster.
When he was done, the most powerful person in the room—the CEO of General Mills—stood up to speak, clearly annoyed. And by the time he sat down, the meeting was over.
Since that day, with the industry in pursuit of its win-at-all-costs strategy, the situation has only grown more dire. Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970) and seventy pounds of sugar (about twenty-two teaspoons a day). We ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, and almost none of that comes from the shakers on our table. It comes from processed food. It’s no wonder, then, that one in three adults, and one in five kids, is clinically obese. It’s no wonder that twenty-six million Americans have diabetes, the processed food industry in the U.S. accounts for $1 trillion a year in sales, and the total economic cost of this health crisis is approaching $300 billion a year.
In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how we got here. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century—including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more—Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research.
Moss takes us inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the “bliss point” of sugary beverages or enhance the “mouthfeel” of fat by manipulating its chemical structure. He unearths marketing campaigns designed—in a technique adapted from tobacco companies—to redirect concerns about the health risks of their products: Dial back on one ingredient, pump up the other two, and tout the new line as “fat-free” or “low-salt.” He talks to concerned executives who confess that they could never produce truly healthy alternatives to their products even if serious regulation became a reality. Simply put: The industry itself would cease to exist without salt, sugar, and fat. Just as millions of “heavy users”—as the companies refer to their most ardent customers—are addicted to this seductive trio, so too are the companies that peddle them. You will never look at a nutrition label the same way again.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15797397-salt-sugar-fat
would be nice if they had veal.. hate driving sixty to eighty miles for good veal... Some, though not all, of Johnny Carino’s locations, and all Gondolier locations have veal.. Moochelle Obama needs to keep her grubby hands off our restaurant menus.. But for that matter the seafood alfredo used to be shrimp and crawfish (everywhere not just gulf coast), then sometime in 2005 they ditched the crawfish for scallops...
” It is incredible the amount of salt they put in EVERYTHING!
They could use half as much and it would still be TOO salty!”
***
The last time I was at OG, I told the server that I’m on a restricted sodium diet and asked if the chef could cook my meal without added sale. I was politely informed that OG has some set formula or recipe for their food items, from which the chefs aren’t permitted to deviate.
Now my neighborhood Italian restaurant cooks to order, so if I ask for no added salt, I get no added salt. Actually, I’ve been there so many times, I don’t have to ask anymore.
I love Olive Garden!!! I try to get our family there at least once a month. For the food that you get, it is cheap. I guess everyone just wants to eat at McDonald’s. Outback and Olive Garden are my families favorite! Hopefully Olive Garden continues on forever.
I’ve been to a few different Olive Garden locations, although it’s been a long time since I’ve been to any. At least back then, the differences between locations was huge — get the right place, and the food was quite good for the price.
I’ve seen the same with other chain places like Red Lobster. Some locations are quite good, others... not so much.
“Olive Garden promises Cheaper Food”
Honey Boo Boo-style “Sketti” coming to an Olive Garden near you!
No, that was TGIFriday’s and I think those have been gone for years.
By the way their house red wine is absolutely horrible.
Who knows maybe their cheaper fair will be better than their older menu. I will say you won’t find me there trying to find out.
In this tough Obaconomy... people want more food for the buck.
People aren’t eating out much because its expensive.
You can find gourmet frozen food in the grocery store for a fraction of what you’d pay for it in a restaurant.
Bertolli beats Olive Garden! No wonder its struggling.
Why do failing restaurants think changing the decor will bring back customers?
The truth is restaurants fail because someone got the bright idea to start dicking around with the food.
Too many places and products have been “improved” right out of existance.
Are you listening Olive Garden?
“Any Italian who eats there should turn in his Pisano card.”
It is Paisano, not Pisano.
Takes out Bic lighter.
Your card please.....
Olive Garden, the chain that puts the "Yu" in the word "YUCK".
If you support Mrs. Wookie food Nazi's food policies go to Olive Garden. If you want real food, go elsewhere and avoid OG like the plague.
I was so disappointed when they took the Chocolate Gelato off the dessert menu.
I have always liked Olive Garden but I stopped going several years ago. I am not sure why. Probably because the nearest one was about 60 miles from home.
The food has always been good for a mass market restaurant that tries to please many people and I have always liked it.
I cooked up some fettucine the other night that had the best tooth I have ever tasted. It was out of this world.
Lmao, my grandma and my mom also used salt, sugar, and fat to “hook us”. The local bakeries and delicatessens have been doing it for centuries. If you want to blame someone, blame the irresponsible consumers, not the producers making perfectly legal products which are completely non-harmful if used appropriately. Otherwise, by equating salt, sugar, and fat to addictive drugs, you are ultimately calling God the biggest drug pusher of all, since we can’t live without consuming those substances He invented.
The Italian-American community in Southern California is rather small, so real Italian restaurants are hard to find. However, Lomeli's, in Brea and Redondo Beach, serve good, authentic Italian food, as does the Eastside Market, which is owned by an Italian family and is located in LA, just north of Downtown and west of Chinatown.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.