Olive oil 101 with Michael Chiarello
Ask a professional cook how many olive oils they keep and the answer is rarely one. There is an oil for the heat of the pan and a different oil for the last raw drizzle — and knowing which is which is the single most useful thing a home cook can learn about olive oil.
Here is the idea that unlocks olive oil for a home cook: it is not one ingredient but two jobs. There is cooking oil — what you heat in the pan — and finishing oil — the raw thread you pour over the finished dish. They can be the same bottle, but they rarely should be, because heat destroys exactly the aromas you pay a premium for. Keep that distinction in your head and everything else falls into place.
An oil for the pan
For everyday cooking — softening onions, roasting vegetables, the base of a sauce — you want a sound, honest extra virgin, but not your best one. Its job is to carry heat and a little flavour; its finer aromas will cook off regardless. A common myth says olive oil is unsuitable for cooking because it ‘smokes’ — in fact a decent extra virgin has a smoke point comfortably above normal sautéing and roasting temperatures, and its antioxidants make it more stable in the pan than many delicate seed oils. Save the deep-fat frying for something cheaper, and cook happily in ordinary olive oil.
An oil for finishing
This is where the money goes. A fresh, characterful extra virgin — peppery Tuscan, grassy Spanish, whatever you love — poured raw over soup, beans, grilled fish, bread or a salad, keeps every one of the aromas that heat would have burned away. A teaspoon of a great oil at the end of cooking does more for a dish than a whole pan of it at the start. Buy your expensive bottle for this, and never, ever put it in a hot pan.
Filtered, unfiltered and flavoured
Two more distinctions worth knowing. Unfiltered oil is the cloudy sort that still holds fine particles of olive flesh; it can taste wonderfully fresh and full, but those particles settle, can turn the oil stale faster, and will burn in a hot pan — so treat unfiltered oil as a finishing oil to be drunk young. Flavoured oils — lemon, chilli, wild fennel, garlic — are easy to make yourself: warm good oil gently with the aromatic, then strain it (a coffee filter works). Homemade beats most commercial versions, which often lean on cheap oil and artificial flavour.
| Oil | Best use | Keep away from |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday extra virgin | Sautéing, roasting, sauce bases | Nothing — this is your workhorse |
| Best extra virgin | Raw finishing, off the heat | The hot pan — heat wastes it |
| Unfiltered | Finishing, drunk young | Frying — the sediment burns |
| Home-flavoured | Finishing, dressings, dipping | Long storage — use it fresh |
Practical takeaways
- Keep two oils: a good-value one for the pan, a fine one for finishing.
- Ordinary extra virgin is fine to cook with — the ‘it smokes’ worry is overblown.
- Never heat your best oil; its aromas are the thing you paid for.
- Treat unfiltered oil as a finishing oil and drink it young.
- Infuse your own flavoured oils — warm, steep, strain — and skip the commercial ones.
Cooking with olive oil: common questions
Can you cook with extra virgin olive oil?
Yes. A decent extra virgin is stable at normal sautéing and roasting temperatures; its antioxidants even help it hold up. Just don’t waste your finest bottle on heat.
Why keep more than one olive oil?
Because heat burns off the delicate aromas you pay for. A cheaper oil does the cooking; a fine one, used raw, does the finishing.
What is unfiltered olive oil for?
It is a fresh, full-flavoured finishing oil. Don’t fry with it — the suspended olive particles burn — and drink it young before it turns.
Are flavoured olive oils worth buying?
Often not — many use cheap oil and artificial flavour. Making your own by gently warming good oil with a herb or citrus and straining it is easy and better.
Does olive oil have a smoke point too low for cooking?
No. A sound extra virgin smokes well above ordinary pan temperatures. The claim that it is unfit for cooking is a persistent myth.
The ‘you can’t cook with olive oil, it smokes’ line is one of the most durable myths in the kitchen, and it costs people the healthiest fat in their cupboard. A decent extra virgin is perfectly happy in a pan. The real rule is simpler and about waste, not smoke: don’t heat your expensive oil, because heat burns off the very aromas you paid for. Cook in the everyday bottle, finish with the good one, and you get the best of both.
Drawn from professional-kitchen practice and the chemistry of olive oil’s smoke point and stability.