Mina Stone laughing in her kitchen.
Photo: Rose Liu

Chef Mina Stone’s Healthy Olive Oil Obsession

By Aileen Kwun
October 19, 2019
2 minute read

Mina Stone, author of Cooking for Artists, opens her first restaurant, Mina’s, at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, this November. Here, she talks about her affinity for top-quality olive oil.

How would you describe your approach to cooking?

I feel like I’m a home cook. I like to give people simple recipes, oftentimes [ones] that are important to me and relate directly to my [Greek-American] heritage.

Is there a lesser-known ingredient that you like to use in your dishes, and if so, why?

I’ve got to say, I don’t use any lesser-known ingredients. I can’t think of one. I use a lot more olive oil than most people in America. It’s not a lesser-known ingredient—I just use it in quantity.

Why so much olive oil?

With good-quality olive oil across the board, you really can’t lose. I wrote this in Cooking for Artists—I think that when you ask people to use a lot of olive oil in their cooking, you have to give them the source for where to get good-quality olive oil that doesn’t break the bank. There are shops throughout the U.S. where you can get a liter of olive oil for $20, and it’s olive oil from Greece, so it’s not mixed from a few different countries, which is usually the case of poor-quality olive oil, like Bertoli. When you have good-quality olive oil, to me, it tastes like heavy cream, and it’s fruity and fresh. I bake all my baked goods with olive oil, too. I know a little bit about wine—I can tell good and bad—but I’m never the kind of person who can sit there and smell wine and talk about the different flavor notes, though I can do that with olive oil.

What’s a food related-memory you’ll never forget?

I was seven years old when my grandma in Greece made me two Greek fried eggs and french fries—which is my favorite nighttime meal. I licked the plate clean, and I was like, “Look, now you don’t have to wash it!” Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her washing it. For some reason, that has always stuck with me.