Cooking with olive oil
Olive Oil vs Grapeseed Oil: Which One Actually Suits Your Cooking
Olive oil is pressed from a fruit and keeps its flavour; grapeseed oil is a refined by-product of winemaking, extracted from the seeds left over after grapes are pressed for wine.
The short answer
Olive oil is mechanically pressed from olives and, in its extra virgin form, keeps its flavour and aroma. Grapeseed oil is a refined by-product of winemaking, pressed from grape seeds left over after wine production and processed into a neutral, high-heat oil. One is chosen for taste, the other for what it does not taste of.
Grapeseed oil turns up in a lot of Malaysian kitchens as the neutral option for searing and frying, often bought without much thought about where it actually comes from.
The two oils start from a completely different place: olive oil is the point of pressing an olive, while grapeseed oil is what a winery does with a seed it would otherwise throw away. That difference shapes almost everything else below.
Where does each oil actually come from?
Olive oil is pressed from the fruit of the olive tree, and extra virgin olive oil keeps that fruit's flavour with nothing refined out. Grapeseed oil is extracted from the seeds left over after grapes are crushed for wine, then refined using heat and solvents to make it usable, since raw grape seed oil is not something anyone would cook with directly.
That refining step is the same process canola and other neutral seed oils go through, which is why grapeseed oil behaves more like canola oil than like olive oil in a kitchen.
How do they compare on taste?
Extra virgin olive oil carries real flavour from the fruit it was pressed from: grassy, fruity, sometimes peppery. Grapeseed oil is refined to be almost flavourless, with only the faintest nutty note if any, which is exactly why it is chosen when a dish needs an oil that stays out of the way.
| Olive oil (extra virgin) | Grapeseed oil | |
|---|---|---|
| Flavour | Grassy, fruity, peppery finish | Neutral, faint or no taste |
| Colour | Green to gold, varies | Pale gold, consistent |
| Best raw use | Dressings, dipping, finishing | Rarely used raw |
| Source | Pressed olives, mechanical extraction | Winery by-product, refined |
Which one handles higher heat?
Grapeseed oil, clearly. Refining gives it a high smoke point, noticeably above extra virgin olive oil's range, which is why it is often chosen for a hard sear or a hot wok where a neutral oil that will not smoke is the priority. Extra virgin olive oil smokes lower, which covers most home cooking but not the hottest, fastest jobs.
For sustained high heat with no flavour of its own, grapeseed oil or a refined olive oil are both more practical than extra virgin.
What is the price and availability difference?
Grapeseed oil is a by-product of an industry that already exists to make wine, so its cost depends heavily on the winemaking supply chain rather than on olive harvests. In Malaysia it is usually a specialty item on import shelves, while olive oil, though also imported, is far more widely stocked.
Neither is a cheap everyday oil here. The choice between them tends to come down to what the dish needs rather than price alone.
Can you substitute one for the other?
For a hard sear or a neutral-flavoured bake, yes, grapeseed oil and a refined light olive oil do a similar job. For anything where olive oil's own taste is the point — a dressing, a dip, a finishing drizzle — grapeseed oil leaves the dish flatter, because it was refined specifically to have as little flavour as possible.
- Swap freely for high-heat searing or frying where neither oil's flavour matters.
- Do not swap grapeseed oil into a dressing or dip meant to taste of olive oil — the flavour will simply be absent.
- Do not swap extra virgin olive oil into a hard sear if avoiding smoke matters — grapeseed handles that heat better.
Is one genuinely healthier than the other?
Extra virgin olive oil is mostly monounsaturated fat and retains polyphenols from the fruit it came from. Grapeseed oil is mostly polyunsaturated fat, a different fat profile shaped by the refining it goes through, which is a composition difference rather than a claim this article makes about treating any condition.
Both are foods, not treatments. Anyone with a specific dietary or medical concern should get guidance from a doctor or registered dietitian rather than a comparison article.
So which one belongs in your kitchen?
Both, used for different jobs. Reach for grapeseed oil when the dish needs high, sustained heat and no flavour of its own, and reach for olive oil when the oil is meant to be tasted — raw, in a dressing, or finishing a dish. Picking one to replace the other everywhere usually means losing what each does best.