A professional chef has advised home cooks to stop adding olive oil to pasta water, saying the ingredient “does nothing” and can actually prevent sauce from clinging to the pasta. New Zealand chef Andy Hearnden, known online as Andy Cooks, shared the tip in a YouTube video titled “Olive oil does nothing in your pasta water, I promise”.
Why olive oil fails
Hearnden, who spent more than two decades working in restaurants before starting his online content in 2020, explained that oil cannot stop boil-overs. “Boil-overs are another problem that oil can't solve,” he said. “The foam that climbs up the side of your pot isn't fazed by fat, it keeps rising regardless. Look at that - it's not sticky. No sticky.”
The better approach
Instead of oil, he recommends using a larger pot and cooking pasta at a lower temperature. “Your best defences are a larger pot and a lower flame. It's way cheaper and far more reliable,” he said. He added that skipping oil helps sauce stick better to the pasta, ending with “Bon appétit.”
Viewer reactions
Commenters on the video largely agreed. One wrote: “The main benefit is that you don't waste a pretty expensive quality product for nothing.” Another said: “All you need is salt and to keep stirring and like you said lower flame bigger pot!” A third praised Hearnden for “debunking cooking myths since 2020”, while an Italian viewer noted they never understood the point of oil. One person admitted they “didn't even know that some people put olive oil in their pasta water.”
