The Way Olive Garden Serves Its Pasta Is A Big No-No In Italy

From pasta to pizza and creamy gelato, Italian food has come a long way in the States from its Italian roots and made quite an impression on Americans. According to a 2019 Statista data survey, Italian food ranks third overall in the most popular ethnic cuisines in the United States. However, not all Italian food in the U.S. is considered "authentic." In fact, one of the most popular Italian restaurants in the States makes people in Italy roll their eyes: Clearly, we are talking about Olive Garden.

The popular restaurant chain may call themselves an "Italian Kitchen," but there are quite a few things on OG's menu that you'd never find in Italy. While some fans of the franchise love that their favorite Italian food chain offers such good deals on never-ending pasta bowls for only $13.99, others turn their noses at the pasta dishes pictured, with globs of sauce stacked on top of dry pasta. Per Food Network, restaurants in Italy would never serve patrons pasta dishes without mixing the sauce together first. Many Italian chefs claim there is a correct way to add sauce to your pasta, and scooping sauce onto the top without any mixing is definitely not it.

You may not have realized that Olive Garden was breaking this cardinal rule of pasta making, but those who live in Italy are wincing from across the Atlantic. Most authentic pasta dishes call for sauce to be mixed in with your noodles before serving, with a dash of salted pasta water for extra moisture. This allows the chef to control the ratio of sauce to pasta and allows for a perfectly even bite of carb-loaded deliciousness.

It is also considered taboo to pair together just any pasta shape with any sauce. According to Delish, "It's important to pair the correct type of noodle with a particular type of sauce so that the sauce can bind to the pasta or allow the pasta to absorb the sauce dependent on its style." For example, long, flat, ribbon-like pasta like pappardelle and fettuccine are best with meaty sauces that soak up the savory flavors in the sauce and shine through. Whereas thicker pasta shapes like twisted fusilli are best with light sauces like pesto. After researching Olive Garden's extensive menu, it's clear they haven't been paying a whole lot of attention to the relationship between their pasta types and sauces, allowing customers to build their own pasta bowls with their choice of shape, sauce, and topping, something you're not likely to see at an authentic Italian restaurant.

There is plenty of discourse on the internet surrounding the many ways that Olive Garden is not authentic, with some even calling it "trash Italian food." Many Italian food lovers claim that Olive Garden has Americanized their food by covering it in cream, butter, and cheese, and expanding their portions to well over the size that you would find in Italy. From the endless breadstick basket to the epically proportioned meatballs, Olive Garden has made a name for itself as a very inauthentic Italian kitchen. However, that doesn't seem to bother its die-hard fans.

Olive Garden has remained a staple sit-down restaurant since it was founded in 1982. According to the company website, the Italian food chain has over 900 locations in the U.S., making it the "leading restaurant in the Italian casual dining segment." While it may not be considered authentic to Italians, fans in America defend their favorite dishes at the restaurant where they are often treated like family. 

One Reddit poster shared an extremely controversial opinion: After trying local cuisine on a trip to Italy, the person claimed that Olive Garden is better than authentic Italian food. Of course, commenters were shaken by this hot take, but others had to respect that some people's palates just favor Olive Garden's way of doing things. Some prefer to tour Italy and try authentic cuisine, while others are content ordering a Tour of Italy for $29.49 at Olive Garden.