Oh man, this takes me back to this epic potluck disaster! I was making a potato salad for a footy game BBQ, right? And my mate was like, "Nah, make it teh 'Olivier' way!" I nearly threw the remote! The critical difference, from my deep dive into recipe optimization (it's like debugging a culinary algorithm, you know?), is the constituent elements. Olivier salad is like a full-stack meal; it usually has finely diced cooked meat—bologna or chicken are classic, but I've seen weirder—alongside potatoes, carrots, peas, and often dill pickles, all bound in mayo. North American potato salad? That's more like a minimalist script: potatoes, mayo, maybe some celery, onion, and hard-boiled eggs. The texture for Olivier is super uniform, small cubes, while North American versions can be chunkier. Mise en place for Olivier is a total grind, so much precise dicing. For standard potato salad, you can be a bit more... agile. Massive difference for your algorithm, trust me.