"Whether this is true of all their "chefs" or not I do not know--it may only apply to their international restaurants."

It was not true of the Olive Garden in Fargo, ND. But, of course, this was not one of their international restuarants! LOL

Hi Al_LaCarte, after your post I went onto Google, and saw that the culinary school is south of Florence. They make it sound terrific but again, after seeing their TV ads I don't understand how they can advertise that they are the "true Italian dining experience". Oh well, advertising is often misleading. Thanks for the info!
Mangia!

LoveItaly,

Interesting. And of my half a dozen experiences at OGs (none by my choice) I have to agree that I have never had what I consider to be a "true Italian dining experience". Not even sure I can remember a "true dining experience" in one.

Perhaps if we just shorten it to "an experience" I could agree.

AL ((d))

Hi Al, ROTFL!! ::) Love your comment. I have some friends in Florence and I have never remembered to ask them if they know about this culinary school. I will be interested in their answer. Take good care.

Love the Olive Garden comments. LOL! I have been lucky enough to have so far avoided "dining" there, and hopefully, my luck won't run out!

Joan--Good for you and your DH that you've managed to find a way to successfully balance family and your restaurant. Finding employees that you trust has a lot to do with it. But my DH always says the same as you, about if something goes wrong in the middle of the night, the owner's the one who has to deal with it. I'm glad for our family's sake that he has so far chosen the other route (and he does LOVE his job). He has a lot of flexibility in his position, and can almost always be home for school events and many of the kids' games. And he doesn't work 6 and 7 day weeks, like so many in this crazy business! I'm glad to hear that your DH had his priorities right from the start and that it worked so well for you!

I also loved your DH's quote "The harder I work, the luckier I get." Friends are always telling my DH how lucky he is as well, but he's also a much harder worker than any of the friends who tell him this! LOL!

Al_LaCarte, don't tease us. Tell us why restaurants fail. The subject fascinates me. I'd appreciate your ideas. Thanks!

I'm guessing it's the "chefs" in Olive Garden HQ who maybe spend time in Tuscany, adapting dishes to accommodate cheapest ingredients and survive freezing. Or maybe it's the yearly getaway for top management, who have nicknamed themselves "chef" just to be jolly.

Have a relative who thinks OG is THE Italian restaurant to go to, even though there are 2 really good and much more authentic restaurants in her town. What seems to appeal to her is the cream in the "endless" overdressed Caesar salad and the huge portions that guarantee that you can take home enough for a second meal.

And if you want to ask what makes a restaurant succeed in the US, excessively large portions of the cheapest foods (with, of course, substantial mark-up) seems to be one winning idea.

My parents like to eat out, and they go to some pretty interesting, local good places. But they also love Olive Garden. They get soup, pasta, split a salad. They have enough leftovers for lunch the next day. And they like that the wine list has some decent by-the-glass choices for my father. It may not be my choice, but I'd feel incredibly pompous criticizing their restaurant taste. Reading some of the comments here on Olive Garden, I just got this feeling that people like to pat themselves on the back for their excellent taste by knocking other people.

My husband is a recruiter for the restaurant industry -- he places chefs, GMs, construction & HR execs, etc. He started out in the early 80s as a Pizza Hut manager. We met when he was a manager and I was a waitress at Flakey Jakes in Madison, WI (anyone remember that chain, from Seattle? It was like a full-service Fudruckers.)

After we married, he took a job as a manager at an Olive Garden in Chicago. We went on our honeymoon, then I moved back into my parent's house while he went to OG's training institute in Orlando for 3 months, LOL! (Damn, I sure wish it had been Italy; I definitely would have gone along!)

After working at OG for two years, he quit to become a recruiter, and we haven't eaten at an OG in the 18 years since! I still laugh when I think of the show The Bachelor, the one with Andrew Firestone. On one date, he and some girl were discussing dining out. He said he liked to eat Italian, and she said, "Oh, you mean the Olive Garden?" like it was the only Italian restaurant in existence. The look he gave her was priceless!

There must be some truth to the "Institute" in Tuscany
http://www.windsorbeacon.com/localne...3/2168643.html

I am always amazed with the ire that is directed towards Olive Garden on Fodors.

I do not think that OG tries to be anything more than a good middle of the road chain restaurant that serves a consistent meal.

Do I laugh out loud when I see their commercials with chefs being trained in Italy and Italian families going to OG for a wonderful meal? Yup.

Have I had better food elsewhere? Absolutely. Do I prefer locally owned restaurants? Absolutely.

But to rank OG as a step above McDonalds is not quite fair.

After reading these posts yesterday, my DH and I went to - gasp - OG. We did call-ahead seating and still had to wait for 20 minutes for our table. The people walking in off of the street had 90 minute waits - and you know what? They waited.

Whether you like the food or not, OG has their model down pat.

As a side debate, which chain Italian restaurant is better, Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill?

Whenever I see people waiting to get into an Olive Garden or Bennigan's or any other "neighborhood" restaurant, it makes me think that maybe the Europeans are right about Americans.

Amazing.

Hit post too soon...
Do share - what do "Europeans" think about "Americans"?

Last night after posting here I called in to our local radio restaurant program (The Restaurant Show) which airs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I told the program moderator about this discussion and asked him if he knew the real "scoop" on Olive Garden.

Here is what he told me, "OG has chefs in Tuscany who come up with the recipes and then freeze the sauces, etc. involved for shipping to The United States restaurants who then heat up the sauces but (obviously) prepare the pasta portions themselves. Once in awhile, some of these chefs make the rounds in the U.S. to ensure pastas are being properly cooked and presentation is consistent."

If he's correct, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, Then many of you are right. Ingrediants are fresh, then frozen, then shipped.

Actually sounds like they go to quite a bit of trouble to keep their product consistent across the country.

AL ((d))

P.S. Forgot to mention I also asked him if he knew the latest national statistics on restaurant margins. Are you ready for this? He said that currently, the national average is around 6%. 6%!?

So, if you're thinking of opening your own place, you might be better off taking that money and investing it in a good Mutual Fund--it's be a helluva lot less work!

BTW, The average margin here in Denver is (I believe) around 10% - 12%.

AL ((d))

I'm a business consultant who works with a variety of retail and service businesses. I get calls every week from people who want to open restaurants who have never done anything more than eat in restaurants. Invariably, I advise them to go work in a restaurant for at least six months, then re-evaluate their desire to open their own place.

Inexperienced entrepreneurs always underestimate how difficult the 'business' end of the restaurant is; they think that they have a good recipe for something, therefore, they will be wildly successful.

Managing an unmotivated, low-paid group of servers/kitchen help is a huge issue. Not many view waiting tables as a career, and the 300% turnover mentioned in an earlier post is accurate.

Appropriate ordering of input items / controlling cost of goods is another huge issue.

Marketing, or lack thereof, is critical. 'If you build it, they will come' just doesn't work.

Most of this goes back to having a workable business plan -- taking the time to research every aspect of the business, and coming up with viable financial projections that includes enough working capital to keep going in a worst-case scenario.

We have a local restaurant that has been around for 25+ years, in a good location, excellent food and service. This place has served as a training ground for no less than six other successful area restaurant start-ups. These new restaurant owners (mostly chefs) spent time (usually a few years) working in Craig's place before launching out on their own. Two of the newer restaurants are actually in the same shopping center with Craig, and all three flourish. The common denominator is that they all have great, consistent food and service, and all have learned enough about the business management side of the business before they started (I know, several are my clients). Experience in the business is crucial before anyone should consider starting their own restaurant, in my opinion.

There's a great show in the UK called "Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" He visits restaurants that aren't working to help them get back on their feet. A lot of the time the reason they are failing is lack of advertising, bad looking rooms, surley staff, BUT not usually bad food. He had a show where an american woman had a soul food joint, and no-one came in because no one knew about it. Very interesting show.

We get that show here in the US too. It is interesting.