Going the distance: Local Olive Garden managers traveled to Italy to study food, wine and culture

In November, three employees of the Olive Garden restaurant in Cape Girardeau achieved the highest honor bestowed by the company: a trip to Italy to learn and experience firsthand the country's food, wine and hospitality.

"It was the trip of a lifetime," says Kristy Murdock, culinary manager at the local restaurant. "It was five-star everything."

General manager Troy Mool says selection for the annual trip is based on restaurants' financial performance and guest satisfaction. This year only 30 restaurants out of more than 800 in North America had management teams selected for the trip.

"There are a lot of criteria, and a very select few get to go," Mool says. This was the second trip for Mool, who also was selected in 2009, just three years after the Cape Girardeau restaurant opened in 2006. It was the first trip for Murdock and Ken Walsch, service manager at the restaurant.

"It's set up as an immersion trip. It's set up to give you the inspiration behind the brand you work for," Mool says. The team toured cities including Rome, Florence and Siena, experimented with food and wine pairings and even cooked pasta and pizza from scratch in the culinary school at Universita  dei Sapori in Perugia.

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Cape Girardeau Olive Garden managers Troy Mool and Kristy Murdock are in this group photo from a company trip to Italy. Service manager Ken Walsch also went to Italy, but during a different week. (submitted photo)

"Things move at a slower pace there," Mool says of Italy, and that includes dinners, which can last a few hours. "Eating is a big deal -- to sit down as a family unit and enjoy a meal."

In the past, only general managers had the option of a company trip to Italy, but the opportunity recently became available for management teams. Knowing this, the Cape Girardeau team set Italy as its goal for the year.

"We worked really hard for it, and we knew the criteria, so we slid right in," says Walsch, who has worked for Olive Garden since Oct. 30, 2008, starting in Fenton, Missouri. He started out bussing tables and worked every job in the restaurant before moving into his current role as service manager.

"A big thing for me was the passion," Walsch says of his experience in Italy. "Whether their job was to set the table, greet the guests, cook the food or serve the food, they did it with passion and they loved what they did."

He noticed the royal treatment wasn't just for the Olive Garden group -- it was for every guest in every restaurant they visited.

Kristy Murdock, culinary manager at Olive Garden in Cape Girardeau, poses for a photo during a company trip to Italy. (submitted photo)

"They inspire passion in you and what they're doing for you. ... They appreciate every single person, and that's what we call 'hospitaliano' is," he says.

The team has its sights set on future trips to Italy, which means their No. 1 goal is still to provide delicious food and excellent service that will keep their customers coming back.

So what is the restaurant's recipe for success when it comes to service?

"We make it about the people," Mool says, and he refers to customers and the staff -- he says he wants the staff to enjoy the restaurant's environment just as much as the guests do.

He notes that the Cape Girardeau restaurant has 110 employees and only about a 30 percent employee turnover, much lower than the national rate of 62.6 percent cited by the National Restaurant Association.

Kristy Murdock, right, Ken Walsch Jr. and Troy Mool, managers of Olive Garden in Cape Girardeau, pose for a photo inside the restaurant March 1.Laura Simon

Murdock says good service is about "trying to inspire the staff to do their best every single day."

Adds Walsch, "It's about character and integrity more than anything. I can teach you how to carry a tray, but I can't teach you to be respectful."

Mool agrees: "A lot of times they have it or they don't," he says. "I can tell in the first five minutes" if their smile is genuine and if they have what it takes to provide good customer service, he adds.

Service also is about "setting goals and figuring out how to achieve them," he says. "Don't stop working toward your goal. Work on it a little bit every day, every week, every month ... and you'll get there."

With their first trip to Italy under their belts, the team is working to bring a little of the Italian culture they experienced back into their home restaurant.

"Every culture is proud of something, and for them, it's food and wine," Mool says. "We do a lot of wine pairings. Pairing is about how the wine enhances the flavor of the food -- you don't sit down for dinner without wine."