I had lunch at the local Olive Garden. Haven’t been there for years. I asked the manager if any of their food had MSG (monosodium glutamate) in it. She firmly said no, they don’t use msg. For various reasons, all I had for lunch was their house salad and bread sticks ordered without garlic on them. By the time I got home I was working on a migraine headache. MSG is one of the two food triggers that I have for migraines. So I emailed Olive Garden directly through their website. The response I got back is that they do not add msg to their food, but any products they buy from another vendor might have msg in it. They also said that they use HVP (hydrolyzed vegetable protein) in their recipes and that therefore they do not consider any of their food safe for me.
For those of you who don’t know, hydrolyzed vegetable protein is simply another name for msg because it contains so much msg. Other things that are essentially msg are: autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extract, soy extracts, and protein isolate.
If you are having trouble cloning Olive Garden recipes, this may be the reason.
As for me, I won’t ever be eating at Olive Garden again.
Sorry to hear that. Hope you are feeling better.
Your story is a great reason to make it at home instead. You can control what ingredients you use.
Thanks Ron. I can usually sleep off a migraine in about 24 hours, but it certainly isn’t any fun! Nor is it fun for my husband! I’m usually pretty careful in restaurants and which restaurants I choose. Most of the big chains have portion controlled kitchens and don’t really make anything on site. Their main kitchen prepares and freezes everything in single serve portions. Then the local branch thaws and finishes it for service. They always cut corners for the sake of profit and using msg and HVP etc is one way to cut corners.
Sometimes I am forced into a position where I must go to a restaurant I really wouldn’t choose on my own. This was one of those times.
My husband and I tend to go to little, ethnic, Mom & Pop type restaurants where they really cook on site. Those types of restaurants almost never use msg or the like. They make real food for their patrons and it is usually really good.
its a shame to read this, I have never eaten at olive garden and have been planning a trip there for a while. Oh well, maybe not!!!