olive gardenWhy does everyone insist on picking on Olive Garden? Surely, there are more offensive chain restaurants to mock that don't offer unlimited amounts of their delicious signature offerings.

The Italian chain is being mocked after a disgruntled former manager took to the web to expose the restaurant's deep dark secret -- that its famed Tuscany Culinary Institute, where chefs and managers allegedly go to "learn authentic cooking" from "head chefs and top culinary instructors," isn't quite the cultured, erudite experience it's reputed to be ... 

Apparently, the former manager meant to defame Olive Garden with this shocking revelation. Instead, Olive Garden fans across the nation responded to the news with a collective shrug: After all, they don't go to the restaurant because it's authentic. As anyone who's ever sampled the bread-sticks will most certainly tell you, they go because it tastes good.

And as for what actually goes on at its cooking institute, Time reports that Olive Garden has an agreement with a rustic farmhouse-turned-hotel and restaurant in Tuscany, but no school at least in the traditional sense. The chain sends about a dozen employees each week in the off-season between November and March to spend time with a chef in the restaurant's kitchen. So, it's not exactly a top-tier academic cooking experience. But the employees are cooking Italian-ish food in the Old Country, as well as visiting a winery and fresh food market -- are we really going to be mad about that?

One thing that Olive Garden would be wise to add to its "curriculum," however? A class for employees about how not to get toddlers drunk in their restaurants. Maybe then the chain could stop getting such relentless bad press.

 

Image via Amy the Nurse/Flickr