Can you cook with extra virgin olive oil?

Yes, you can cook with extra virgin olive oil. In fact, it's one of the best oils you can use.

Extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point of around 190-215°C, which comfortably covers frying, roasting, sautéing, and baking. It's also one of the most stable cooking oils when heated, because it's high in monounsaturated fats and contains natural antioxidants called polyphenols. These protect the oil from breaking down under heat far better than polyunsaturated oils like sunflower or vegetable oil.

The idea that you shouldn't cook with extra virgin olive oil is a myth. It probably started because EVOO is more expensive than basic cooking oils, so people assumed it should be saved for salads. But in Greece, Italy, and across the Mediterranean, it's been the everyday cooking oil for centuries. Research consistently shows it holds up well under normal kitchen temperatures.

We grow and press Koroneiki olive oil on our family estate in Kefalonia, and we cook with it every single day. This guide covers everything we get asked about using olive oil in the kitchen.

Can you fry with extra virgin olive oil?

Yes, extra virgin olive oil is perfectly safe for frying, and it's what we'd recommend for most everyday cooking.

The concern people have is usually about smoke point, but EVOO sits at around 190-215°C depending on quality. A typical frying pan on a medium-high heat reaches about 170-180°C.

That gives you plenty of headroom for frying eggs, searing meat, cooking onions, or frying chips. You're unlikely to hit the smoke point in normal home cooking unless you walk away and leave an empty pan on full heat.

What matters more than smoke point is how stable an oil is when heated, meaning how well it resists breaking down and forming harmful compounds. Extra virgin olive oil performs exceptionally well here, because its high oleic acid content and natural polyphenol antioxidants protect it from oxidation.

A widely cited 2018 study published in Acta Scientific Nutritional Health by De Alzaa, Guillaume and Ravetti tested ten common cooking oils under heat and found that extra virgin olive oil was the most stable, producing the lowest levels of harmful polar compounds - outperforming coconut oil, avocado oil, and all tested seed oils.

So when you fry with extra virgin olive oil, you're not wasting it. You're using one of the most heat-stable cooking fats available.

What about deep frying?

Yes, you can deep fry in olive oil. Deep frying typically happens at 160-180°C, which is comfortably below extra virgin olive oil's smoke point. Research shows EVOO degrades less during repeated frying cycles than sunflower or vegetable oil, because of its oxidative stability.

The main reason people don't deep fry in extra virgin olive oil is cost. You need a lot of oil to fill a deep fryer or pan - often a litre or more - and most of it gets discarded afterwards. That's an expensive batch of chips!

A standard olive oil (not extra virgin) is worth considering for deep frying. It's still far more stable under heat than seed oils, it costs less per litre, and it handles sustained high temperatures well. If you do use EVOO, you can strain and reuse it once or twice as long as it hasn't darkened or started smelling stale.

Either way, olive oil in any grade is a safer deep frying option than sunflower, rapeseed, or generic vegetable oil. Those are high in polyunsaturated fats, which break down faster under heat and produce more harmful compounds.

Does olive oil become toxic when heated?

No. Extra virgin olive oil is one of the least likely cooking oils to produce harmful compounds when heated, thanks to its high oleic acid content and natural antioxidant protection. The idea that it becomes toxic is probably the most common myth about cooking with olive oil, and it's not supported by the evidence.

The concern comes from the idea that heating any oil past its smoke point creates toxic compounds - specifically aldehydes and polar compounds, which are linked to health risks. That part is true for all cooking oils. But extra virgin olive oil resists this far better than most, even at high temperatures, because its chemical structure is naturally resistant to oxidation.

The 2018 study by De Alzaa, Guillaume and Ravetti tested this directly. They heated ten cooking oils to 240°C and measured the harmful compounds produced. Extra virgin olive oil generated the fewest.

Canola oil, grapeseed oil, and sunflower oil all performed significantly worse. The researchers concluded that smoke point alone is a poor predictor of how safely an oil behaves when heated. Stability and antioxidant content matter far more.

So no, cooking with extra virgin olive oil does not make it toxic. The opposite is closer to the truth - it's one of the safest oils to heat.

Is frying with olive oil healthy?

Yes, frying in olive oil is healthier than frying in most other oils. Extra virgin olive oil is around 70-80% oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that resists oxidation under heat.

Polyunsaturated oils like sunflower, corn, and soybean break down faster when heated and produce more harmful byproducts. EVOO doesn't have the same problem.

The polyphenols in extra virgin olive oil also survive cooking in meaningful amounts, particularly in higher-quality oils. The European Food Safety Authority has approved a specific health claim for olive oil polyphenols: that they contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress, provided the oil contains at least 5mg of hydroxytyrosol and derivatives per 20g.

Frying still adds calories, and how you cook matters as much as what you cook with. But if you're choosing a frying oil, extra virgin olive oil is the strongest option for both stability and nutrition.

Which olive oil should you use for cooking?

Extra virgin olive oil works for everything - frying, roasting, baking, and sautéing. If you're using a large volume of oil, such as for deep frying, a standard olive oil is more economical. It depends on what you're cooking and how much oil you're using.

Extra virgin is the least processed grade, made by mechanically pressing olives without heat or chemicals, and it retains the most flavour, polyphenols, and nutritional value. If you're using a moderate amount of oil in a pan or drizzling over vegetables before they go in the oven, EVOO is the best choice.

For deep frying or recipes where you need a large volume of oil, a standard olive oil (sometimes labelled "pure" or just "olive oil") is more economical. It's a blend of refined and virgin olive oil - less flavour and fewer polyphenols, but still predominantly monounsaturated fat and still far more stable under heat than seed oils.

What we wouldn't recommend is pomace olive oil for cooking. It's extracted using solvents rather than mechanical pressing, and it lacks the antioxidant profile that makes olive oil a good cooking fat in the first place.

The biggest thing that affects how well an EVOO performs in the kitchen is freshness. An oil that was pressed recently from healthy fruit and stored properly will have higher polyphenol levels and better heat stability than one that's been on a shelf for eighteen months.

Look for a harvest date on the bottle rather than just a best-before date, and store it somewhere cool and dark, away from the hob.