“He’s overreacting”: Olive Garden customer “very upset” his meal didn’t match the photo in the ad

An Olive Garden customer was outraged that his steak and shrimp bucatini didn’t look like the glossy photo in the ad. His spouse posted a side-by-side picture on Reddit, and commenters were quick to say he was overreacting. Many pointed out the obvious truth of food advertising: what you see in a commercial or menu image is the result of food styling tricks, not something any restaurant kitchen can realistically reproduce on a nightly basis.

Olive Garden: Expectations vs. reality

According to the OP, their husband was rather irate at the stark contrast between the staged photo and the meal before him.

“My husband ordered this entree and was very upset it didn’t look like the picture,” u/BobbyBobu wrote in the headline. “I think he was overreacting — What do you think?”

Most Reddit commenters, various degrees of Olive Garden experts, think he was definitely overreacting. Plenty of Olive Garden aficionados felt that the husband in question shouldn’t have been griping regardless. It’s Olive Garden, man.

“Oh wow, that actually looks great for Olive Garden,” remarked u/Sqooky. “Would not complain one bit.”

“You went to an Olive Garden,” u/FMLitsAJ pointed out. “He expected it to look exactly like the picture? Crazy. Did it taste good, if yes, don’t complain.”

“He’s overreacting,” u/jmvfromnv declared. “Show him videos about food styling.”

Food photography magic

Food photographers for ads like the one in this post go to extreme lengths to make the subject of the photo as appetizing as possible. No Olive Garden cook can replicate this 50 times a night.

Redditors with experience in the matter confirmed this.

“My wife worked at Wendy’s years ago, and her store was chosen to be the set for commercials,” wrote u/driverman42. “She said the work, the illusions, that go into making it look perfect is unreal. And there’s plenty of sites on YouTube that show the fakery it takes to get it to look perfect.”

What you see in that ad might not even be real food, according to another Redditor.

“I remember when I was a kid I saw an episode of Mr. Wizard (just to show you how old I am) about what they do to make a hamburger look good,” said u/oldsbone.

“The mayo was glue and all the veggies were selected from a big tub and pinned on to look all folded big. The buns were painted with varnish and the sesame seeds were individually glued on.”

In response to the Redditor telling the OP to show their husband food styling videos, they said he actually evoked Chef Gordon Ramsey.

“He just thinks they put in no effort,” they wrote. “He says ‘I wish Gordon Ramsey saw this.’”

Gordon Ramsey? In an Olive Garden? Truly, this man has some unrealistic expectations.