Saturday, January 1, 2011

Olive Garden

I was in Wilmington, NC over Christmas with Yoyo and my future in-laws and there was no place to eat on Christmas Eve so we went to the Olive Garden, which was packed with families. There were no independent restaurants open. I got the sense that for plenty of folks, Olive Garden is what McDonald's was in the 80's: good eating out. The food is consistent, tastes like food, and is delivered in a timely systematic way and in a pleasant-ish atmosphere. It is my desire to bring healthy, fresh food to a wide swath of people, and the Olive Garden is my main reference point of competition. If that healthy, fresh food is frozen, shipped to a restaurant across the county, then prepared, is that satisfactory? Are there basic kitchen techniques that workers with no prior experience can learn in order transform frozen or otherwise packaged food into a satisfactory culinary experience?

2 comments:

  1. the OG doesn't address problems UP the food supply chain, away from the consumer (big carbon footprint, supplies from big agriculture, etc.) but it probably is a good working model for the delivery of fresh healthy food downstream to the consumer...

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