“Our vision at Olive Garden is to delight every guest with a genuine Italian dining experience,” says Salli Setta, SVP of Culinary & Beverage. “It’s our heartfelt passion that permeates the entire organization.”

Each year, culinary managers from more than 100 different Olive Garden restaurants travel to this Tuscan village to immerse themselves in Italian cuisine and culture at the Olive Garden Riserva di Fizzano restaurant and adjoining Culinary Institute of Tuscany. Here, they take courses from Executive Chef Romana Neri (pictured on the right) on Italian cooking essentials, such as the importance of the freshest ingredients, the art of cooking pasta, the layering of flavors and the marriage of Italian food and wine. They come for knowledge, but above all else they return to their respective restaurants with inspiration. Restaurant general managers, servers and other team members also visit Riserva di Fizzano and the Institute and bring back the best of Italy to their restaurants.

This represents an unprecedented partnership Olive Garden established with the Zingarelli family, owners of the property and the Rocca della Macie winery. It has helped Olive Garden’s talented culinary development team create award-winning dishes, such as Pork Filettino, Mixed Grill, Tortelloni di Fizzano, Spaghetti delle Rocca and Lobster Spaghetti. The result is that guests can enjoy the best menu in casual dining, as rated by Restaurant Business magazine.

Developing new dishes is just one of the many ways that 20-year-old Olive Garden is bringing innovation, quality and value to the marketplace. In recent years, we have focused on making wine an integral part of the Olive Garden dining experience. We created the Olive Garden Wine Institute of Napa Valley to train managers on how to make wine approachable and enjoyable for their guests, and expanded our offerings to include 38 award-winning wines. The Wall Street Journal took notice and honored Olive Garden for having the best wine program in casual dining, as did the Monterey Wine Festival.

And how does culinary and beverage inspiration translate to the bottom line? Olive Garden’s relentless commitment to fresh ideas has played a critical role in generating same-restaurant sales increases for 31 consecutive quarters at this company with almost 500 restaurants – an achievement that keeps both chefs and shareholders inspired.

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