“The quality of frying sold me right away,” says Chef Peter Pahk at Silverado Country Club and Resort in Napa.

“The clean medium of grapeseed oil is really spectacular. It lets the quality and  the true nature of the food you’re frying come out, without any aftertaste or heaviness.

“We’re doing everything with it,” says Pahk, whose three restaurants include the three-meal Grill at Silverado. “We’re doing wet preparations, we’re doing tempura, we’re doing breadings, we’re frying taro in it.” 

Pahk uses only Salute Santé! ® Grapeseed Oil in his deep-fat fryer. “We fry a lot. We’ve got chiffonade of taro, we’ve got beet chips, we’ve got tempura shrimp, we’ve got coconut shrimp, we’ve got crab cakes. You name it, we fry it. And of course, with a three-meal restaurant, you’ve got to have French fries. That thing is constantly going.”

On top of the culinary advantages of Salute Santé! ® Grapeseed Oil, Pahk is glad to use a cooking and frying oil that he can recycle back to the maker locally for use as fuel.“It’s just part and parcel of our whole sustainability program at Silverado,” Pahk says.

At Étoile, the sophisticated restaurant at Domaine Chandon in Yountville, chef Chris Manning uses Salute Santé!

Grapeseed Oil in nearly every dish. “It lets the flavor you want shine,” says Manning, who recently flew to New York to cook at the James Beard House.

From appetizers like peeky-toe crab cakes with lemon-caper-parsley aioli to housemade infusions flavored with truffle or chive, Manning says “you can get the true flavor” with Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil. Manning even mixes it into duck confit for a lighter, healthier dish.

“For one, it has a longer fryer life: It fries so clean and crisp, and it gives a very good, even, golden color without changing or imparting flavors.” On the stovetop, “it’s the only oil I use for sautéing, for its high flash point. It lets the food speak for itself, and it really helps trap in the flavor.”

Manning calls Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil “the most versatile oil out there for any cooking method – emulsions, hot cooking, cold cooking.”

Victor Scargle uses Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil throughout his kitchen at Go Fish in St. Helena, turning out dishes like slow-poached fish and crispy vegetable tempura.

“The flavor is a lot better,” says chef Victor Scargle, a longtime fan of Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil. “It adds a little bit of fruit, but it’s also subtle enough that it doesn’t compete with whatever you’re frying. Shrimp taste like shrimp – they don’t taste like peanut or shortening.”

            Its high smoke point and light, neutral flavor make Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil perfect for sautéing, Scargle says, “especially for fish: If the pan’s not hot, it’s going to stick; and you don’t want to use other oils, because they’ll burn.”

            Its high smoke point and light, neutral flavor make Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil perfect for sautéing, Scargle says, “especially for fish: If the pan’s not hot, it’s going to stick; and you don’t want to use other oils, because they’ll burn.”

Go Fish recycles its frying oil for biodiesel, and Scargle says he also likes the fact that Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil is itself a recycled product made from pressed wine grapes.

“It’s the whole package – it’s the health, it’s the flavor, it’s the high smoke point, it’s the quality. It’s much more desirable.”

  It’s the workhorse oil in the kitchen,” says Chef Jeff Mosher of Julia’s Kitchen at Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa, who has been using Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil for so long he calls it “our oil.” Mosher likes Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil for everything from sautéing to vinaigrettes. The extra-high smoke point means “it’s not going to burn on you when you’re sautéing a piece of fish or crisping up a duck confit leg,” he says.

           In the deep fryer, Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil “lasts well through heavy use” without breaking down or imparting unwanted flavors to Mosher’s fried dishes.

            Mosher recycles his used frying oil to the makers of Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil, who use it in their converted diesel truck and two cars. “I think it’s a great thing that they’re using it as fuel,” he says. “I feel very happy that I’m able to promote that.”

 Chef Eric Tucker of Millennium, San Francisco’s premier vegetarian restaurant, has switched to Salute Santé! ® Grapeseed Oil in the new 15-liter can.

“I’m using that exclusively, because it’s really cost-effective,” says Tucker, whose restaurant has been named VegNews’ best for five consecutive years.

Tucker likes grapeseed oil for its “high level of vitamin E and antioxidants,” he says. “It’s a very stable oil at high heat.”

Tucker calls the results of frying with Salute Santé! ® Grapeseed Oil “Flawless.”

In cold preparations, “it’s great,” Tucker says. Salute Santé! ® Grapeseed Oil “creates a really strong, stable emulsion”…. “I like its neutral flavor,” Tucker continues. “We use it a lot. It’s all over our dressings, and being that we’re a dairy –free restaurant, it’s in a lot of  pastries. “It’s all over the place.”

            In his award-winning kitchen, Tucker uses Salute Santé! ® Grapeseed Oil to marinate vegetables in dishes such as mushroom escabeche.

            But what he really likes best about Salute Santé! ® Grapeseed Oil is its properties as an oil for infusions. “It shines all around, but I definitely feel that it works better than some of these other oils for infused oils.”

At Napa’s hip downtown restaurant Zuzu, Chef Angela Tamura uses Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil to create mouthwatering tapas like bean fritters, deep-fried half quail and queso frito with manchego.

            “It’s got a really clean flavor,” Tamura says. And with Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil’s high levels of Vitamin E and antioxidants, “it gives a nice golden-brown color to the food, and it doesn’t break down very easily.”  “It’s beautiful with fish,” she continues. “It gets hot enough, it doesn’t smoke, you can get a nice sear on the fish – but it doesn’t have any kind of an aftertaste.” Tamura recycles her used frying oil to the makers of Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil for use as diesel fuel in three vehicles. “Just the fact of recycling oil, and the fact that it’s made from a product that’s recycled, is great,” she says.            But it’s the flavor and health advantages of Salute Santé! Grapeseed Oil that have made it a staple in the Zuzu kitchen.

“The fact that it’s healthy and doesn’t break down is a big part of why we use it,” Tamura says.