Cooking Oils: Which to Use When

For high heat — searing, grilling, high roasting

When you want a hard sear or a rip-roaring hot oven, reach for refined avocado oil. It has one of the highest smoke points of any oil (around 480–520°F), it's neutral, and it's a whole-food oil pressed from the fruit — a lovely choice for searing steak, fish or vegetables. Light or “refined” olive oil and ghee work here too.

For everyday cooking — sautéing & roasting

Here's the myth I want to put to rest: you can cook with extra-virgin olive oil. Its smoke point is lower (about 375°F), but smoke point isn't the whole story — what matters more is how stable an oil is, and EVOO is remarkably stable. A well-known 2018 study found extra-virgin olive oil produced fewer harmful breakdown compounds than oils with much higher smoke points, including avocado. For nearly everything you do at home — sautéing, roasting at 400°F, a gentle pan-fry — good olive oil is perfect and good for you.

For drizzling & finishing — raw

Your best extra-virgin olive oil, and any infused oils, are for finishing, not frying — a drizzle over soup, fish, vegetables, bruschetta or a salad, where all that peppery, grassy flavor shines. Toasted sesame and walnut oils belong here too. Never waste the good stuff on high heat.

An honest word on seed oils

There's a lot of noise about seed oils right now, and I'm not here to fear-monger. The simple, honest version: oils like soybean, corn, “vegetable,” and heavily refined canola and sunflower have high smoke points, which is why they fill fried and packaged foods — and they're already in almost everything that comes in a package. They're also highly processed, and very high in omega-6 fat — and most of us already get far more omega-6 than omega-3. That lopsided ratio is the part often tied to inflammation, so it's worth leaning toward purer, less-processed oils and letting the balance settle on its own. The Mediterranean kitchen just doesn't need them: it leans on olive and avocado oil, and gets the rest of its good fat from olives, nuts and seeds and fish. So my take isn't fear — it's simply: why not choose the less-processed oil, and let your fats come from whole foods? Cook with olive and avocado, drizzle the good stuff raw, and you never have to think about it again.

Smoke point isn't everything

The more refined an oil, the higher its smoke point — but refining strips flavor and character, and a high smoke point doesn't mean an oil is more stable or better for you. That's the whole reason we don't just default to the most refined thing on the shelf.