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| - The braised beef canneloni seemed like such a good idea, and it would've been if I would have thought to buy a case of Gatorade before I ate it. Seeing as how I didn't, this meal ended up being pretty disappointing. I can just imagine the exchange at Maggiano's "food school" or wherever they develop their dishes:
"People like braised stuff these days, right?"
"Yeah."
"And balsamic vinegar is, like, all the rage, is it not?"
"Indeed it is."
"If a dish 'needs a little something,' it is more often than not salt, correct?"
"Yes, good sir, salt is the magic missing ingredient every time!"
"Would you say, then, that if we put an ounce of salt into each dish, it is unlikely that our customers would feel that the dish was lacking salt?"
"Indeed."
"OK, so let's braise some meat, stuff it into noodles, develop a sauce that has balsamic vinegar as its primary ingredient, and add as much salt as we can. Be sure to add the salt when the sauce is near boiling so as to create a supersaturated solution."
"Brilliant!"
"Can you think of anything else?"
"Yes... texture is all the rage these days. Perhaps we could disrupt this dish with some completely misplaced and undercooked root vegetables! What could be finer than intermingling some crisp fresh carrots with the melt-in-your-mouth beef?"
"Not a damned thing - let it be done!"
The funny thing is that there is actually an article out on The Google about how they make this very dish. I may have been slightly off in a couple of my details...
The formula for this restaurant is to take Olive Garden's horrible menu, dress it up a little bit, add dark wood and white linens, and make believe it's gourmet.
It's a great formula for a successful restaurant, but not much of a formula for great food.
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