TikTok Can't Stop Talking About This Olive Garden Employee Breadstick Reveal
Olive Garden has a unique claim to fame among other chain restaurants: Its breadsticks are — no exaggeration — legendary. Seriously, can you think of any menu item from any other restaurant that has such a dedicated following, that stirs up more love, that people just can't get enough of? Those soft, warm, buttery, garlicky, salty little pillows are often a big part of the reason people even go to Olive Garden. Sure, the pasta's great, and there's the whole family vibe. But would any of that even matter if not for those breadsticks, almost too good to be both free and unlimited?
With this kind of reputation, it's absolutely no wonder that an Olive Garden breadstick reveal would break the internet. Forget celebrities, maybe even forget bulldogs on skateboards: An Olive Garden insider has something to say about this appetizer, and people are listening and commenting.
Olive Garden has always been protective of the breadstick recipe, and who could blame them with a guaranteed crowd draw like that? Cosmopolitan reports that part of the sorcery is in the sticks getting brushed with butter and sprinkled with a special, proprietary kind of garlic salt. But in a recent TikTok video from user jacklinne8, the Olive Garden employee did the unimaginable and pulled the breadstick curtain back. Now, anyone with an internet connection can see how the magic happens.
Now we know the time-honored Olive Garden breadstick method
According to Insider, Olive Garden serves between 675 million and 700 million breadsticks per year. That presumably requires a lot of work from the chain's employees, and based on a Reddit post, it seems that some locations have dedicated staff members just for the breadsticks, while others at least allocate parts of people's shifts. The Olive Garden staffer who wrote that Reddit post said his location goes through about 2,000 breadsticks per night. And now, TikTok-er jacklinne8 has shown what that process is for each tray.
In the video, we see that step number one is putting the bread on the pan, and it shocked some commenters that the first step wasn't actually baking said bread. "So they don't [make] their own bread?? They just reheated?!" cried one follower. Step two is placing the pan in the oven for three minutes, followed by the two toppings we'd been privy to before: butter and garlic salt. What we were not prepared for is how much butter is applied. It's slathered on with a wide brush, and it's noticeably bright. One user commented: "I don't know what kinda 'butter' that is but I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be THAT yellow." Once the butter is on and the garlic salt is sprinkled, the breadsticks await their destiny on someone's table.
The overwhelming reaction seemed to be excitement at this Olive Garden breadstick content. The good news is, jacklinne8's caption promises, "More bts coming soon."