Olive garden? Just say no...
I try not to be a food snob since many times I enjoy even the worst of the worst cuisines/foods. I have eaten from street vendor carts, I have eaten dirty water dogs served by a man with dirty hands, and I even enjoy ramen noodles on ocassion. But Olive Garden is a travesty. To be fair, I am Italian and grew up not only with real Italian cooking at home (parents immigrated to live in US) but my family also runs an italian restaurant. It is really is the fast food of Italian food.
You will notice many of their sauces are always containing some sort of butter or cream sauce. You throw enough butter, cream, cheese and salt and surely it will taste good and satisfy the lowest common denominator of people. But someone who knows a thing or 2 about real cooking (minute rice doesn't count) recognizes this trick.
Someone made a comment before about spaghetti bolognese. This is absolutely correct. Pasta is not just meant to be eaten but it has function as well. With a thick sauce, you need a bigger wider pasta to pick up the sauce. The sauce is not just for decoration; it is meant to be eaten! But alot of americans dont know what paperdelle or linguine are (which are more appropriate for this sauce) yet everybody knows spaghetti. And thats why you get dishes like spaghetti bolognese
Speaking of spaghetti and meatballs, that's an Italian-American dish. Its not really from Italy. Same thing with chicken parmigiana etc... Thats not to say we don't serve it in my family's restaurant. After all, if the people want it, then we will serve it. But we make it a point to also serve many authentic Italian recipes and stay true to our roots.
To compare, the average Chinese person would scoff at PF changs, most takeout Chinese restaurants etc... for the same reason; none of this cuisine is found back home.
