/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Most of our casual dining restaurants are like this, they mass-produce it in a central kitchen and ship it out nationwide. Olive Garden sells their shit frozen in supermarkets, this shouldn't come as a surprise. They are basically telling you that's how they prepare their food.

Olive Garden makes everything from scratch. First shift chefs make the pasta for the day every morning

>>19579376
When I worked at Taco Bell, the meats and nacho cheese was heated up in plastic bags in a hot bath set to 195 for 30 mins. I imagine Olive Garden does something similar with their entrees. I bet their dough comes in premade too and they just portion it and pop it in the oven.

>>19579376
i thought it was microwaved but my friend started working there as a cook and says it's from scratch

>>19579397
Explain this, then.

>>19579406
I ate that with a mountain dew one night and puked so much in the morning I couldn't leave for class

>>19579406
That's a takehome container from when they do their "buy one for now get a free one for later" promotion.

>>19579376
Their sauces and soups are made from scratch, their pasta comes half-cooked. Everything else is somewhere in between. Pretty sure the only thing they actually microwave is some of the desserts.

>>19579391
Liar

terrible food

>>19579376
The soup comes in bags. Cheesecake factory is probably the only casual dining restaurant that makea everything on site

>>19579376
>Is it true Olive Garden just microwaves their food?
no

>>19579385
That's a rumor that's been kind of overblown. It's true of Friendly's and maybe a few others, but even shitholes like Fridays aren't just microwaving their meals in a bag. Some of the ingredients in a dish will come pre-made, but they're not just microwaving a prepared meal.

Pretty sure they boil actual pasta, but it's still all cheap sysco shit. They definitely aren't making their own sauces in-house or anything.

>>19579816
That’s right. They microwave like two or three bags and mix them together wa la.

When the Croatians defeated the mongols, the Croatians were said to engage in widespread cannibalism.

Apparently human meat is safe to eat if you don’t eat the brains.

Also, during the American civil-war, it’s said entire union armies disappeared and were eaten by Dixie towns in the far west regions past Kansas.

Imagine a bunch of Dixie girls with nice big potbellies digesting the remains of subversives/exploiters/invaders etc

I love the growing Dixie nationalism of western America

>>19579376
I’m gonna get Olive Garden to cater for my wedding. Tons of bread sticks and chicken and gnocchi soup. I’m from commonwealth of va btw

>>19579897
>Imagine a bunch of Dixie girls with nice big potbellies digesting the remains of subversives/exploiters/invaders etc

This is relevant to my interests.

>>19579376
>just microwaves their food
i don't know but the shrimp alfredo was overcooked by about 2 minutes
i appreciated the black kween who gave me extra cheese on my never ending salad tho

>>19579376
I used to work dish pit in high school at Olive Garden and it made me despise corporate chain restaurants so much that I don't eat at them anymore.

>>19579376
Most restaurants premake their food to some extent. Especially large once that serve many customers.

>>19579406
Well DUH, they premarket it then heat it up

>>19579376
everyones food is premade and warmed up. not necesarily microwaved. you can get most american 'restraunt' food from restraunt supply stores, or warehouse bulk sellers like costco.

nothing like going to a chinese place and they sell you 4 shrimp for 15$ that comes from a box with 20 for the same price. i hate how all the local places with actual cooks shut down due to the pandemic. use to have a really nice chinese place with an old man who had been doing it for 40 years... now its all premade crap.

>>19579846
Have you ever been to Olive Garden, anon? No one's gonna accuse it of being quality, but it takes like 45 minutes to get your food. There's no microwaves involved.

>>19579376
All of their soups and sauces are homemade. Everything else is frozen.

>>19579376
i used to work there. alfredo made in house. i dont remember if the marinara was made in house. i want to say no.

soup comes frozen in a bag. chicken + all that other meat n shit gets grilled there. sometimes we used the microwave to cool a chicken for like 10 seconds jsut to get it to temp. also use it for steaming vegetables.

breadsticks literally came in a cardboard box and tasted like cardboard lol.

>>19583222
>sometimes we used the microwave to cool a chicken
Can't you just leave the chicken out for a few minutes?

>>19583222
Checked. Now tell us what kind of Area 51 alien technology Olive Garden has that allows a microwave oven to "cool" things.

>>19579376
That looks like a weird cookie cutter spot placed down by disney.

>>19579376
Does that disney shithole include flying saucers and lizard people?

>>19579376
>Is it true Olive Garden just microwaves their food
Yes

>>19583333
One can never leave the chicken out of a chicken pot pie.

One of the worst parts of liberal capitalism is the destruction of 'quality' and 'craftsmanship' in the life of the average person. If you wanted to enjoy something you had to work for it and it was better for that. The average peasant was eating better tasting and more nutritious food than the average American.

Our relentless drive for convenience and low cost over quality and taste is toxic. Liberal capitalism is cancer.

>>19579376
Only thing micd is broccoli asparagus and mac and cheese. All sauces and soups are made same day in house.

>Go to olive garden
>Order unlimited soup salad and breadsticks
>Only get breadsticks
>Order a boat of alfredo sauce
>Dip bread in alfredo sauce
>Repeat until physically ill
God I love this stupid country

>>19579421
>their pasta comes half-cooked
Isn't it standard practice in restaurants to (there's a word for it but I'm forgetting it) half-cook most of their stuff and finish cooking to order?

>>19579376
Most Olive Gardens are 200-300 seat restaurants, do you think the kitchen consists of nothing but giant walls of microwaves? Anybody that says [restaurant chain] microwaves all their food is a retard talking out of their ass.

>>19579385
>>19579376
order a meal to go it's basically the sauce scooped from the bucket.

>>19583465
i agree, but
>Liberal capitalism
why not just say Industrial Society?

>>19583690
click bait trolls and shit
doesn't understand that they, as a corporation, KNOW how to prepare their made in restaurant meals/foods so it can be microwaved at your shitty homes/dorms/RV's/motels.

People can't afford owning ovens and shit nowadays, also generations of kids don't know how to even cook/have literal religious/cults reasons for many so called grown ass men/women incapable of doing anything(unwilling both culturally and religiously) to cook food beyond simple microwave instructions beyond GRILLING/OPEN FLAME stuff.

>>19579391
Do you also believe in Santa Claus?

>>19583901
Nigga I think you done smoked too much crack cocaine

>>19579376
You could literally only think this if you've never used a microwave before in your life

>>19583465
>The average peasant was eating better tasting and more nutritious food than the average American.
why do dumbfucks romanticize this shit
no retard, being forced to eat gruel and wild root vegetables is not better than being able to go to the store and buy whatever fruits and meats you want

>>19583912
What? What about frosty the snowman and rudolph the red nosed raindeer?

>>19583690
4/5 burners to a stove, they’d have to have have a wall full of stoves. 2-300 people aren’t showing up at once, they do other prep and set things aside. Also it’s been mentioned the bags are placed in water baths. 3-4 bags per pot will cover a whole table.

>>19583685
blanching or par-cooking

>>19579376
my ex-wife worked there when she was in high school. she confirmed...everything is boil in bag or prepared by chef mic

>>19585208
During lunch and dinner rushes they could easily have 40 items to be fired, you'd need to have at least 20 microwaves to handle that and they'd all have to be running simultaneously because it takes way longer to heat a giant portion of pasta with sauce and meat in a microwave than to saute it. 3/4ths of the pasta dishes at the restaurant I work at get put out in under 2 minutes on the saute station.
>Chicken Parm and spaghetti
Literally just heating parboiled pasta and marinara. 1 minute at most
>Alfredo
Parboiling pasta and heating sauce and precooked and sliced chicken and tossing together. 2 minutes.
>Scampi
Parboil pasta, saute garlic, add wine and burn it off, slop lemon butter into pan, cook shrimp. 4-5 minutes depending on if you're scared of fire. None of these would be faster in a microwave
>They put bags in water
That's not microwaving it and if I were to guess they were thawing it to portion later.

>>19584773
You're just wrong + strawman + L + Ratio .

>>19583176
Only someone who eats at Olive Garden could be retarded enough to believe that time = working hard = quality

>>19586288
Can you read? Who said anything about working hard? And I literally said no one would ever call it quality. But they don't use microwaves to heat the food.
It's not like a microwave is much easier than stove or oven, anyway. It's just quicker, which obviously isn't a priority for Olive G42x8harden. Retard.

>>19586302
Whoops, *Olive Garden, obviously. Also, I don't eat there.

>>19586302
>order pasta frappacini
>back of house jacks each other off for 42 minutes
>throws dish in microwave for 3 minutes
>ORDER OUT!

>>19586314
Why not just throw the food on the stove and jerk each other off while it's cooking?

>>19586341
Nuking food is much more idiot-proof than even sauteeing wet dishes
I don't make the rules, anon

>>19579598
NTA, and I dunno about NOW, but Can confirm that they USED to do exactly that. I worked there for almost 2 years and was the pastamaker and Morning prep.
The ONLY thing that came pre-made was the marinara that came in #10 cans, the breadsticks which came from Orlando,(the Bakery,) and some of the desserts like the cheesecake--Everything else was made mostly from scratch, even the salad dressing. There were 4 different morning prep stations-Pounding,(breading,) Sauces, Pasta(FOH booth,) Portion packs,( and another one I can't 'member).
I got to work in the front and flirt with the hostesses. Occasionally had a rush of carry-outs, but that was before it was such a big thing.
Hard work, but it was a fun time. Didn't pay for shit though.

>>19579376
Lol fucking leaflet probably went home and bragged to all of his friends hope good and home made tasting it was

>>19579391
This. The entire kitchen is filled with little Italian grandmothers who switch between stirring up big pots of of their family's secretive sauce recipe and receiving deliveries from the baker down the street who works tirelessly to supply all of the pané and delicious breadsticks

>>19579816
I was on the opening crew of a Chilis long ago, and was fucking disgusted that EVERY SINGLE FUCKING THING was prefab. Bags, Boxes and Cans from Sysco. Even the fucking hamburgers were pre-cooked and pulled outta their VAC-Pacs and thrown on the grill for like 60 seconds.
Wait.. I take that back there was ONE thing that was made entirely from scratch--the thing that without fail, came back to the dishtank 80% of the time: The Pico de Gallo.
I quit that bullshit BEFORE the Hard opening.
What a fucking FARCE.

>>19583222
>alfredo made in house
>checked
Is it still 2 Qts. heavy cream, 1 pound butter, 28 oz. Parmesan, and something like 14 oz. of that white sauce mix that came in a big carton like a giant milk carton all put in a deep 1/3rd pan?
I've made literal tons of that stuff.

>>19583885
Based and TED-Pilled

>>19585208
>4/5 burners to a stove
Ahhh...NO.
Vulcan stoves have a minimum of 6/per stove.
The OG I worked at, Saute was a 10 burner line.

>>19579396
Fine dining establishments figured out a way to get away with doing this too. They came up with the term "sous vide."

>>19579396
Wow, Taco Bell sous vide'd? Oo lala

>>19586144
>>Chicken Parm
how do they get it crispy?

>>19586144
checked and yes chef'd

My parents are obsessed with Olive Garden and have been my entire life. It is disgusting and fake Italian food for white Americans with no taste. My aunt came through town and guess where they decided to eat? Olive Garden... So I went with them after not having eaten at one in 6-7 years. Now the salad was good, but everything else was was fat ppl food. It was all huge quantities of simple carbs, cheese, globs of fat, and unhealthy oils. It seemed like everything was covered in Alfredo sauce. Not even good Alfredo, no its fat ppl Alfredo for simple Americans who basically want to smother their fat bodies with Alfredo sauce and breadsticks. Imagine Jabba the huts covered in Alfredo. That is what I saw all around me at OG.

My family spent $200 on shit that costs maybe $15-20 to make. It is not a good rate of return.

I felt so unhealthy after eating OG.

>>19579615
I got a big piece of plastic wrap with my burrito there once.

>>19579376
Best italian food.

>>19586350
You don't make food either, apparently

Imagine going to an American corporate chain "restaurant" that serves you frozen fast food tossed into a microwave.

Extremely relevant video from 1985

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uxx9HvlhPM

>>19589032
Most Americans can't cook. And most Americans live in town without independent restaurants
This means most Americans (especially the ones on this board) have only ever eaten microwave chain slop
No wonder their posts are always so bad

>>19589290
>most Americans live in town without independent restaurants
You're retarded.

>>19589290
All the fast food posts by yanks are starting to make sense, also how every american recipe is just piling on loads of salt and oil on overcooked meat - the most efficient way for chain restaurant to factory cook food

I don't bother cooking most of my food. For the last 30 years I've been eating old fashioned oats and raw beef/pork/chicken, only spiced up with salt, msg, and/or tabasco sauce. Sometimes when I get wild hair growing in my butt, I'll go and buy something from a fast food joint.

>>19579376
It's not just chains. A lot of restaurants pre-make a bunch of food and microwave it when people order.

I'm starting to understand that people on 4chan has never been outside as an adult and only know of food from the bland chains that their parents took them too as children. You seriously think most people eat at these chains and that real restaurants don't exist on every corner? These places are for families to take their snot-nosed brats because every family has a picky eater and the only taste bud they have is "sweet". Sure some fat slobs never grow out just like some women never grow out of Disney, but if you think it's the norm you've never been outside

>>19589380
>4channel is full of retarded pathetic manchildren
Stop the presses

>>19583685
Cold sweating

>>19579406
Don’t microwave plastic

>>19588891
Good thing you saw it. it's freaky thinking you could ingest something like that and never know about it.

I mean, you'd probably pass it out but worst case scenario could be a serious health/digestive issue if it were a hard piece of plastic or something.

>>19579391
Lmao no they do not.

>>19579897
/ck/ - Food and Cooking

>>19590470
What is sarcasm

>>19590508
You can’t post a post like that with literally no indication of sarcasm on a site full of retards who make stupid claims all day and expect everyone to know that you’re not serious.

>AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS AMERICANS

People go here because it’s cheaper and they have big titted waitresses

>>19590579
Every "rent free" is another butt-hurt American or sympathizer of such.

>>19588692
You aren't wrong.
This should be new pasta if it isn't already(why no 4Plebs archive for /ck/?)
The alf sauce is: boxed parmesan, 2 quarts heavy cream, one pound of butter and white sauce mix...I think that's it, IIRC.
Seed oils REALLY fucked up American restaurants--Previous to the "Trans-Fat Scare" in the early 80s, even the fast foods were a lot healthier than now.

>>19591423
t. butt-hurt European.

>>19589290
I'm afraid from what I've seen you aren't wrong.
>>19589291
There USED to be a LOT more little independent restaurants and diners here. 2008 knocked a bunch out and the lock-downs from the scamdemic OBLITERATED most of the rest while the Gov't SUBSIDIZED the big chains as "Essential Services"
Fuckin' bastards.
Olive garden, like Chi-Chis and Red Lobster are owned by General Mills.
Their stock barely wavered throughout 2020 while indy-owned restaurants were dropping like flies.

>>19590473
It's a wayward B0T..
Something must've triggered it to come from the /uhg/ threads.

>>19589380
Olive Garden really isn’t that bad. Yes there’s better food but sperging out about it online isn’t healthy or normal.
I’ll give you some advice.
Don’t like it? Don’t eat it.

>>19579376
just like meemaw usedta make

>>19591437
There's no way the big mac shrank right? Wouldn't people have thrown a fit back in the day?

>>19591911
People weren't as fat and dumb to care about something like that back then.
I'm sure they were more concerned with the cost of gasoline going from 25 cents to 40 cents.

>>19591453
Flyoverfag hands typed this past

>>19579376
>Is it true Olive Garden just microwaves their food?
Not just Olive Garden, basically every chain restaurant just microwaves premade slop.

>>19592214
Coastal urban redneck amazon slave hands typed this post

>>19579376
all the big american chains are largely microwaved food. they can't have the distribution networks they do across 3000 miles of land without taking short cuts along the way

>>19591453
>the scamdemic OBLITERATED most of the rest while the Gov't SUBSIDIZED the big chains as "Essential Services"
let's not forget it was trump that signed in all those """""recovery"""" bills. biggest erosion of small businesses ever seen

>>19592304
Way to put one word after another, son.

>>19579376
Who's got the recipe for their alfredo sauce? It's the best of the shitty boomer chain alfredo and I want to make it at home.

>>19591437

I'm the olive garden dude your replying to.. I'm 39. Food tasted completely different pre 1990. There was no corn syrup and they used lard in things and there wasn't much seed oil used. Cheese was actually aged. Like pizza cheese was soft and flavorful and would stretch and stay soft. Now it's like plastic. McDonald's French Fries were cooked in beef lard. People were NOT FAT even if they are crap. Some breakfast cereals would be like 50% sugar! Butter was in everything. Again people were NOT fat like they are now. And I could swear food had fewer preservatives too. Everything was larger everything bad was gigantic. You could buy one POUND pastries like Honey Buns. The shit that was bad for us for some reason did not make people fat.

>>19592550
I definitely think it's something in American food. I went to Taiwan and ate gluttonously and didn't gain weight, but I know if I ate like that in the US, I'd have gained like 5-10 pounds during that time frame.

>>19592397
This isn't true. Yes they cut corners and yes they aren't good quality food. But the distribution network is just Sysco's and using shit quality Sysco food doesn't mean you have to microwave all your main dishes. Microwaves just save a bit of time. They're used to defrost things and maybe for a couple shitty frozen sides, but the risk-reward of saving a bit of time when customers expect to wait 30+ minutes anyway and being labeled a microwave restaurant is not worth it. Heating food on the stove or sous-vide isn't all that hard and consumers largely do not like the idea of microwaved food.

>>19592397
>anon thinks he's smarter than everyone but actually doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about
Classic.

>>19592550
I think you're over-estimating the size of food back in the day. You can look up comparisons, most meals at chains and fast food have gotten much larger. The cheap ingredients aren't magically making people fatter, but the cheapness of the ingredients makes it possible to make bigger meals. And restaurants have realized that people will accept quantity as a substitute for quality so they can give people tons of sugar and vegetable oils that lead to less spoilage and allow them to give people more food for less money.

>>19579376
Panera soup comes in a bag. They reheat it in a sous vide style water bath. Also the dishes are filthy even after coming out of the machine.

>>19592570
It's additives like vegetable oils and sugar that are calorific but not very satisfying. You can eat 2000 calories of shitty processed food like Cheez-Its or Cheetos or McDonald's fries without getting as full as you would from 400 calories of steak or chicken.

>>19592621
I think it goes beyond that. There's some research out there that shows that American grown foods tend to be less nutritious (ie, american grain vs european grain) and I'm willing to bet that affects things like metabolism and other health issues.

I noticed that when I went to Europe as well. At least the whole satiating side of things. I felt like I could eat less and still be full

>>19592570

I know a guy whose family is from Mexico who told me about when he visits. He eats and drinks nonstop in Mexico and keeps losing weight. Everything is fresh baked breads and locally grown vegetables and fruit and freshly caught fish freshly slaughtered animals. He said he thinks the food is richer in nutrients because it is all fresh and grown or raised where they are at and that causes everyone to lose body fat even though they eat gigantic amounts of food. He also said he thinks the complete lack of preservatives is causing weightloss.

He said its freaky. Once he gets there its nonstop eating and he is stuffed and people want him to eat more, but he always drops dozens of lbs Of fat when he is there. In the morning people go around town selling freshly baked breads, milk that was milked that morning, eggs and meats laid or slaughtered that morning, and fresh fruit just picked off the tree. He also said he keeps drinking beer and liquor and soda made with 100% sugar.Then the Mexicans are using everything as an excuse to eat meals in between meals and siesta and leave work early to drink and eat. One of his cousins forgets to go into work so drink and party when he is there and his boss is cool with it. Apparently work is considered optional and everyone thinks its reasonable to drink and hang out.

I know when Americans go to places like France and Italy they lose weight even thought they eat and drink MORE. And you say going to Taiwan was similar. There has to be something wrong with our food. It is causing obesity and health problems.

>>19592666

One of the effects of nutritional deficiency is bloating and weight gain. It causes massive hormonal and metabolic disorders and negatively affects the gut biome the.

If Americans food is void of nutrition it makes sense their shits all fucked up.

>>19592678
> He said he thinks the food is richer in nutrients because it is all fresh and grown or raised where they are at and that causes everyone to lose body fat even though they eat gigantic amounts of food.
confirmation bias horseshit. the difference is in the way of life between the 2 countries, how/where they get their food, and the culture around eating

>>19592696

He wasn't using confirmation bias.

>>19579376
It’s not microwaved. Everything is baked in the oven

>>19579376
Burgers can't into food

>>19592518
I can heat up a jar of Great Value alfredo sauce real quick and tell you what I think is in it. Will that work?

>>19592678
But Mexicans are fat as shit.

>>19592944
Are the ones in Mexico fat? I know that the ones here in the US are but that's true of most minorities that come here.

>>19593092
Mexico is not as fat as the US, but it's not far off. Like a 30% obesity rate and 70% overweight or something like that.

>>19592942
That's fine too. I don't think I've had walmart's but if it's the same shitty but delicious quality, I'll buy it.
>>19593092
They were the most obese country for a while ahead of the US weren't they?

>>19593159
Mexico's fallen back behind the US, afaik. But they were fatter for a while and are still very fat. The fattest in the world are always Pacific Island nations though.

>>19593163

>>19579391
At daybreak, when the roster caws, the old farmer wakes up to harvest the crop that his loving wife will roll into pasta by hand. They stew ripe tomatoes right from the garden with fresh herbs until the noon. Their grandson will bring rich water down from the mountains to give it it's signature flavor. All of this is then brought to the local Olive Garden for dinner service.

>>19588692
Thank you based duck of gains

>>19579376
outback steakhouse once told my friend sorry we are out of medium-well steaks, is medium okay?
>cant you cook the steak more?
no

>>19593988
Be blessed my son

>>19592885
The sausage used in the tour Italy is gross.

>>19593240

>>19594304
That's a man

>>19594116
that explains why I get sick every time I eat their steaks

>>19583465
>capitalism is cancer
This.

>>19579897
> said
By (((whom)))?

>>19596087
You know the indoctrination is bad when people think anyone who dislikes capitalism is a communist.