Olive Garden is one of those places that really sets my blood to boil. Every time I hear the word 'Hospitaliano' I begin to cringe and twitch. When I hear them say 'When you're here, you're family', I can't help but visualize the corporate offices of a chain with nearly 700 cookie-cutter restaurants. I'd just love to show up there one day waving my hands saying 'Ciao!!! It's cousin Michael'. I wonder what kind of Hospitaliano I will receive when I help myself (as family would) in their executive lunchroom at the corporate HQ. Better yet, after you leave an Olive Garden, how many people that work there know your name, let alone consider you family? Do we actually buy into this stuff?

OK, marketing marketing marketing. But now their commercials focus on their 'Culinary Institute' in Tuscany? They imply that their chefs all go there to learn how to make true Italian food with the freshest of ingredients. They learn from a local grandmother, then come back to their local Olive Garden and you get the benefit of their new-found talents. Yeah, Right! This is just over the top. Is Olive Garden actually trying to imply now that they serve authentic Italian food? Do they really want us to believe that it is the real thing? Fresh? We are talking about a Boil-a-meal-in-a-bag-then-serve chain here, people. Their recipes are at best 'Italian Inspired', but by no means Italian. It would be like having someone serve you a sausage and call it a hot dog.

Their latest commercial talked about how their chefs came back from Italy with their new recipe, 'Chicken Crostina' . Ummm... sorry folks, no such thing, and I can most certainly guarantee that the grandmother shown teaching the chefs in the commercial wouldn't put an Olive Garden Chicken Crostina in her mouth to save her life, let alone teach anyone to make it.