One of the best things about Olive Garden (besides the breadsticks) is the finely hand-shredded Parmesan cheese that gets piled liberally on top of every soup, salad, and pasta dish they serve. Of course, servers leave it to the customer to decipher the amount each dish gets topped with.
And it’s the pile of fluffy goodness that has become a signature for the restaurant chain. But people are just finding out that what they thought was Parmesan cheese (also known as Parmigiano Reggiano) being sprinkled on their food—is actually not Parmesan.
Thanks to Internet sleuths and former Olive Garden employees, the trade secret about the cheese they really use has finally been revealed.
Olive Garden’s “parmesan” cheese
Food YouTuber Ordained Cue spilled the secret to followers that Olive Garden’s alleged Parmesan cheese is actually Romano cheese.
“Olive Garden has been lying to you and you didn’t even know it—and it’s about their bottomless parm that they serve,” he says in the clip. “They’ve been fooling us all along when they come around to your table and offer you freshly grated parm for your pasta.”
Specifically, he explains that Olive Garden is still using a real Italian cheese, a Romano cheese from an Italian cheese company called Lotito. The reason: real parmesan is simply too pricey due to standards on ingredients and production.
Parmigiano Reggiano’s standards
Parmigiano Reggiano is regulated in Italy under the Consorzio
del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano, and must meet a number of criteria to be deemed legitimate.
The Consorizio defines Parmigiano Reggiano as a “hard cheese, obtained from cooked and slowly matured paste, made from raw cow’s milk, partially skimmed, produced by cows whose feed consists mainly of forage from the area of origin.
Romano cheese is described by Stella Cheese as “similar to Parmesan, but with a sharper, saltier bite that adds a pleasantly tangy flavor to a wide variety of dishes.”
But back to Parmigiano Reggiano. True Parmigiano Reggiano is classified by where it is produced: “the milk and the cheese are produced in Italy in the defined geographical area which comprises the provinces of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Mantua (on the right bank of the Po river) and Bologna (on the left bank of the Reno river), in compliance with strict standards.”
There are also four guidelines for ingredients: “Dairy cows fed mainly with
forage from the area of production (Silage is forbidden); Milk, cheese making process, and minimum aging (12 months) in the area of origin; Always only 3 ingredients: milk, salt and calf rennet; and 100% of the wheels checked
by the Consorzio.”
Former Olive Garden employees share more
The source of the Lotito Romano cheese info is allegedly a number of former Olive Garden employees, who took to Reddit to inform the world after someone asked what cheese Olive Garden was grating on their dishes:
“I never knew the exact blend or brand (maybe I just didn’t pay attention) but when I worked there the ‘parmesan’ was actually a cheaper kind of romano.”
“I’m an ex employee so I cant check for 100% certain but online it says they use lotito brand romano cheese and the images do look exactly like what we used!!”
“Yes a manager once told me it was lotito brand. I once tried to contact lotito to buy my own blocks of romano from them and they wouldn’t sell to me bc I wasn’t affiliated with a restaurant. A lot of companies changed that type of policy during the pandemic, although I haven’t gone back and tried since this started.”
“Former server here. It’s romano, not parmesan. Olive garden, (or Darden, I should say), is far too cheap to shell out the $ for all of that parmesan cheese.”
People react to Olive Garden’s cheese
In another video on Olive Garden’s Parmesan vs. Romano trade secret, TikToker @earlypete and his followers shared their serious (and funny) thoughts on the matter:
“But…they told me that I was family… Why would they lie 🥺”
“If the customers can’t tell the difference, they shouldn’t feel jaded.”
“I never really understood the difference between these two.”
“I prefer Romano, so I’m glad that’s what they serve tbh.”
“It’s free cheese. Who is complaining about free cheese?”
“ALSO romano melts better.”
“I used to do tours for students in Parma the main difference is parm is certified and has strict rules as to what cheese can be called parm.”
“how could they do this to us? but really most of us will settle for kraft Parm so really not that upset.”
“Finally, I always wondered why the parm I bought tasted nothing like olive gardens cheese.”
