Olive Garden Case Study

Olive Garden— an American casual dining restaurant that serves Italian-American cuisine. It opened originally in 1982, where the Olive Garden headquarters is located in Florida, as part of the Darden Restaurant Incorporations: a multi-brand restaurant operator that owns various chains of restaurants, including Red Lobster and the LongHorn Steakhouse. Olive Garden first started as a unit of General Mills; their Italian-styled theme became a big sensation. Currently, they serve customizable food choices, even for the youngins, including pasta dishes, steaks, and salads. This restaurant continues to strive on their popular slogan: the “Never- Ending Pasta Bowl” where they value 100% of their guest service. When first entering this restaurant,

If he ate at this restaurant, he would rate it as okay because of the various halo effects Olive Garden casts on their menus along with the origin of where the food comes from. When I asked Aracely, the manager, she said that their meat comes from the company Darden, which of course is the major business that own various chains of restaurants. This being said, if their meat comes from a company such as Darden, then it consists of being industrialized. For example, despite Olive Garden showcasing expensive and quality food, they still promote the ingredients to being industrialized. From there, I investigated that Darden supplies their food from other chains of farms. Darden had previous relations with the Thai Union, one of the largest seafood companies that farmed fish. Pollan points out that by feeding farmed fish excess amounts of “whole grain” they, lack in their nutrition of Omega-3. Darden even receives their cilantro from Puebla, Mexico, which travels hundreds of miles across states to deliver the food we eat. Pollan argues that even fruits and vegetables lack their strong nutritional value because of the long processes they go