Move Aside, Olive and Coconut: It’s Grapeseed Oil’s Turn

Salute Santé’s standard grapeseed oil. Photo: Food & Vine, Inc.

As someone who loves to cook, one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen is experiment. With different flavors, different cooking styles, different products. Though I have traditionally relied on olive oil (or butter, if I’m feeling particularly Julia Child-inspired), cooking with other oils like coconut, sesame, or truffle has upped my culinary game. One oil I had never tried? Grapeseed oil. 

“When I had my original chef training in Austria, I learned ingredients are everything,” says Valentin Humer, founder and president of Food & Vine Inc. “I was lucky enough to have a four-year apprenticeship and landed in the best hotel in Linz, the town I grew up in. One thing I learned very quickly is cold pressed oils are key; they are the flavor carriers.” 

Humer’s culinary journey took him from his home garden in Austria to Switzerland and London and finally, New York. There, he met Nanette, and they just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary—and the 30th anniversary of Food & Vine and the Salute Santé! brand, which all culminated from their discovery of grapeseed oil. 

This oil, Humer tells me enthusiastically, has many defining traits, from its high heat point to its health benefits and the fact that the seed itself is part of a circular economy. 

Wake Up and Smell the Oil 

Humer first came across grapeseed oil through the late French chef Jean-Louis Palladin. The chef had been using grapeseed oil for 25 years and Humer discovered it was Palladin’s secret ingredient.  

Grapeseed oil is known for several things: its smooth consistency, its high smoke point, the potential health benefits, and where it comes from. 

Grapeseed oil's smooth and neutral quality makes it great for carrying flavor. Salute Santé!’s garlic grapeseed oil showcases this gloriously, with wafts of the sharp, pungent, delicious vegetable appearing as soon as you uncork the bottle. And all Salute Santé! products are non-GMO verified, cold pressed instead of chemically extracted, and 100% upcycled. 

For Palladin, and what Humer discovered, the lightness of the oil helped the food be lighter and didn’t cause his customers to feel “glued down to their chairs.” 

An abundance of flavors. Photo: Food & Vine, Inc.

“It also has the highest smoke point of any oil,” Nanette adds. “And it’s very high in vitamin E, which is a strong antioxidant.” 

Further investigating grapeseed oil, the Humers were put in touch with a research cardiologist who published a paper on the oil in the Journal of American College of Cardiology, showing initial results of grapeseed oil’s positive impact on cholesterol.  

While no strong claims can be made about grapeseed oil one way or another, its stigmatization has posed a problem for Food & Vine. 

“There are so many oils that are genetically modified,” Humer explains. “There’s a belief about seed oils, they call them the ‘terrible eight.’” 

Though there’s no proof, lambasting seed oils has become popular on the political right, with figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and JD Vance purporting misinformation and blaming various health conditions, like heart disease, on seed oils. In fact, grapeseed oil is high in omega-6 fatty acids, which the American Heart Association has linked with a decrease in heart disease. 

The Grapeseed Oil Venture 

“When I tasted grapeseed oil for the first time, it was from an imported bottle from France,” Humer recalls. He instantly tasted and felt the benefits Palladin had been touting. 

There was one problem, however—keeping it in stock. 

“So, I said let’s make it here in the United States,” Humer continues. That’s when the idea of Food & Vine and Salte Santé! took root. With the support of Palladin, the Humers traveled to Napa Valley in search of a start for their new venture.  

First, they established a taste panel. Palladin and two other chefs, Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, made up the panel. 

It sounded romantic, Humer says of visiting California wineries with his wife, but there were many hurdles. 

Humer at a vineyard. Photo: Food & Vine, Inc.

Valentin, Nanette, and grapeseeds. Photo: Food & Vine, Inc.

“At the time, 1992, phylloxera [an insect pest native to North America that kills grapevines] was rampant,” Nanette says. “People had to replant everything. Nobody was thinking of something new, they were putting their money into rebuilding.” 

The Napa Valley returned to its glory, and soon the Humers moved in to create an industry of grapeseed oil. It was an industry that turned out to be a success in more ways than one, including the inherent sustainability of grapeseed oil, a byproduct of something already being grown. 

In 2011, Food & Vine developed a machine to press the grapeseeds. 

“With these machines implemented in wine regions, vintners don’t need to throw away mountains of pomace every year,” Humer explains. “Normally, they would truck the pomace out of the valley, adding to greenhouse gas emissions, before it all ended up in a landfill. Or sometimes it’s fed to cattle, which is horrible for them.” 

Instead, grapeseed oil—which, in fact, is a fruit oil that comes from a botanical source—preserves a total circular economy when paired with vineyards. 

From Austria to California, the journey of Food & Vine culminated in 2023 by winning a gold sofi Award. Now they boast customers like Chef Morimoto and Thomas Keller, and soon—you! 

If grapeseed oil is the next thing you want in your kitchen, look no further than Food & Vine, one of hundreds of businesses which have been certified as a Green Business Network member, a designation given to businesses which meet or exceed Green America’s standards for social and environmental responsibility.