FACS Olive Garden Soups Copycat Lab

I owe my survival during my college years to Olive Garden and their soup, salad, and breadsticks. It was a great place to work and I never grew tired of their food!

I often encourage my students to take their first foodservice job at a Darden restaurant. I know that they treat their young workers well and that my students will have an opportunity to be promoted. I have a student who started as an alley coordinator and will be moving into food prep and management!

Other than their great work environment, Olive Garden is most well known for their endless soup and breadsticks! Their variety of soup is perfect for our soup lab.

Students could choose what Olive Garden soup to make:

• Zuppa Toscana
• Pasta e Fagioli
• Minestrone

We had a unsweetened chocolate/broth cube mixup with the Minestrone, but the Zuppa and Fagioli were fantastic! And what would Olive Garden soup be without their infamous breadsticks? The recipe calls for the bread to rise for 45 minutes. My students mixed the dough one day, refrigerated it overnight, and baked them the next day with great success.

Mangia, mangia, mangia!