You see olive oil frying used for very specific foods, and they make pretty big differences when people actually go for it. I typically fry in peanut or corn oil at home, it’s the cheapest where I live and has the best flavor. However, something like Italian artichoke hearts, or Greek “beneigts” (or whatever they call them) the olive oil is a night and day difference. Idk, it’s a practice more for restaurants than anything. Most people aren’t discerning enough to know when an olive oil fry is worth it, because it is very rare.

Also, Kenji does food science for restaurants. When we’re talking about frying things and don’t care about creating smoke, it’s because we’re in professional kitchens with good ventilation, and are charging people out the ass for a plate so we have to make sure shit is REALLY good so our restaurants don’t become part of the 90 percent. There is nothing wrong with him answering a question, and dunking on the suburban food snobs you don’t like. It’s not that we should be frying things in olive oil, anybody can tell you that’s too expensive to be worth it. It’s about not deligitimizing cooking processes for a reason that isn’t even true. You have any idea how many times some rich fuck I was a private cook for tried to not pay for their food because “you can’t fry in olive oil because it burns the oil” like they weren’t happily using said “burnt” olive oil to eat 2 loaves of bread. It’s about not letting people be armchair experts on subject matters they don’t understand