Olive Garden, the world’s largest Italian dining concept, must feel like a junior cook in Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen.  Activist hedge fund Starboard Value has been pummeling the chain’s ownership, Darden Restaurants, with changes that it feels the company needs to make in increase revenue and/or cut expenses.

Starboard released a 204-slide deck of suggestions for Olive Garden, detailing everything from board nominees to salting the pasta water.  Starboard even suggests that the concept eliminate the unlimited breadsticks program, saying that doing so could cut $5 million in waste.

Olive Garden, for their part, hasn’t taken the hits sitting down.  The company has fought back by pointing out that Starboard has built their offense with the help of former restaurants executives with a mixed track record of success.  Darden also says that many of the suggestions Starboard makes are items Darden already is implementing or has in the pipeline for the concept.

Darden and Starboard have been at war since late last year and are approaching a vote that will determine which side controls the board.  For its part, Starboard has nominated 12 new directors–including the longest-tenure CEO of Olive Garden, Brad Blum–to completely replace the current board.  Furthermore, Starboard is suggesting that Darden actually separate out the Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse brands from the full portfolio in order to boost share value, which Darden denies would be the case.

To read more, click here.  For the Starboard presentation, click here, and for Darden’s response, click here.

The seats are full at Danny Meyer’s newest restaurant, Marta, located in the Martha Washington Hotel.  The new Roman-style pizzeria, on 29th between Madison and Park, officially opened September 10th, and the enthusiasm is rolling in.  The kitchen isn’t only focused on pizza, though, and the wine list is ready to pair to the wide offering.

The menu features traditional and not-so-traidional pies–from simple sauce-and-mozzarella to the fior to zucca, with zucchini blossoms, mozzarella and anchovies.  Outside of the wood-fired pizza ovens, Chef Nick Anderer is playing with a giant Infierno wood-burning grill from GrillWorks.  The entrees and sides include items such as the beer-brined and fire-roasted half chicken and ash-cooked vegetables.  Because Marta is in the Martha Washington Hotel, diners are blessed with a Marta breakfast menu, as well, with house-churned butter, a wood-fired semolina pancake, and cornettos, to name a few.

Marta was born from Nick Anderer and Maialino partner Terry Coughlin’s desire to expand the Maialino context to a pizza joint.  They went to Mr. Meyer with the idea of a Roman-style pizzeria, and while it was a first for Meyer to put a single chef in charge of multiple restaurants, he sees it as a natural progression. “It also represents an evolution in my thinking about how I run this company,” Meyer said, “It’s a way of encouraging entrepreneurial aspirations that young chefs have. And at the same time, they can also draw on Union Square resources for this project.” Marta is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week.

For more coverage on Marta, see here or here or here.