Seed oils are highly controversial at restaurants. Here’s how Houston restaurants are changing

Each Monday morning, as they slowly simmer stocks and sauces, chef E.J. Miller and his cooks at Chardon also render down the fat from bones, tails, cheeks and other cow parts for tallow. 

“At Chardon, we take pride in being 100% seed oil-free. Our chefs have developed a menu utilizing premium alternatives including avocado oil, olive oils and beef tallow. Bon appétit!” the new French bistro located in the Thompson Hotel proudly notes on its menu.

Steak ‘n Shake, the national burger chain with a location at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, follows a similar path and recently advertised a switch to beef tallow for fries, onion rings and chicken fingers. Last month, the fast-food restaurant also promoted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s visit to one of its restaurants as the health secretary – who is famously pro beef tallow – continued his Make America Healthy Again tour.

“We’re very grateful for them for RFK-ing the french fries, they turned me into a verb,” Kennedy said in an interview in March with Fox News.

At the downtown steakhouse Guard and Grace, Troy Guard’s team bucks the anti-seed oil trend as they fill up fryers with corn or vegetable oil for truffle french fries and spicy fried chicken katsu. 

The debate over whether or not to use seed oils – which includes common varieties like canola, corn and soybean – is one Houston restaurants and others across the country are facing more than ever. From politics to social media influencers, the controversy over seed oils is one that’s been raging as much on the healthcare front as it is on TikTok. 

Restaurants are finding themselves in a position of picking sides.

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For lunch, chef Christian Hernandez of Barbacana in downtown drops duck croquettes filled with a pistachio cream and filets of grouper used in a fish sandwich into a 6-by-12 inch tabletop fryer filled with rice bran oil. 

“Are these good for you? Are they bad for you?” Hernandez asks. “There’s always a big back and forth.” 

Rice bran oil is technically a seed oil, but Hernandez said the brand he buys, which is twice the cost of canola at about $75 to $90 for a five-gallon jug, is less refined. He added that he fries very few items on the menu and that the restaurant also renders beef tallow to mix with rice bran oil.

Long before seed oils became a lightning-rod issue, Mary Cuclis of Greek cafe Kriti Kitchen had been a proponent of avoiding them. She relies almost exclusively on olive oil and butter throughout her menu, from roasting cauliflower to folding filo dough for bougatsa, a pastry filled with sweet and savory ingredients.

But Cuclis also uses rice bran oil for her fryer, partly because she said the oil is “supposed to be better among seed oils” and has a higher smoke point than olive oil.

Some customers have asked about seed oil on the menu, Cuclis said. There’s also a phone app called Seed Oil Scout that helps track restaurants that use or avoid seed oils.

“I think it goes along with people realizing how food affects our health and impacts us,” said Cuclis of the concern over seed oil. “There are people who notice that when they switch to a certain diet, they actually start noticing the benefits.”

Cost is also a challenge, said Cuclis, who currently pays $225 for a five-liter container of olive oil from Greece compared to $170 when she opened two years ago.

Rafael Nasr relies on olive oil he sources from his family orchid in Lebanon for the majority of his food at both locations of Craft Pita. 

He goes through about 75 gallons of olive oil each week but for french fries and orbs of falafel, he still uses a neutral seed oil for frying partly because it’s more economical. It also caters to vegans, Nasr adds.

“You can’t make french fries healthy. You can’t make any carbohydrate that you fry healthy,” Nasr said. “That’s where I struggle as a business owner. How many alternatives do I have?”

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For the past year, On the Kirb’s CEO Joe Arbeely started adding beef tallow to the menu because he believes in its health benefits. Anti-seed oil proponents have claimed that the processing of seed oils can contribute to inflammation and some diseases.

The use of tallow is not just a trend for the mini chain of sports bars focused on offering healthier and organic options, Arbeely said: “We have our beliefs about seed oils, but we’re not demanding or trying to change anyone’s mind.”

Some researchers say there are health benefits to using seed oil and that studies proving otherwise have been too limited in scope.

“People need to weigh their options,” said Xavier Rodriguez, a registered dietician based in Houston. “I think what matters most is the pattern of your diet, not honing in on a single ingredient.”

Before Chardon opened, co-owner Claudia Contreras turned to her own health issues in eliminating seed oils from the menu. She stopped consuming seed oils after dealing with a hernia and persistent reflux issues, she said via email.

“The results were remarkable,” said Contreras of her diet change. “This change reinforced my belief in the gut-brain connection, and the profound impact that diet has on our health.”

When Miller signed on as Chardon’s head chef, he wasn’t sure it was feasible to ban the use of seed oils because of the cost.  

“It’s definitely a polarizing point,” he said about the seed oil debate.

The nose-to-tail ethos was one Miller said he could get behind, though. So on Mondays he helps break down all the various cow parts into 1.5-inch cubes that are tossed into a 40-gallon stainless steel pot with just enough water to help render the fat on a low heat. The cooks strain the fat through a cheesecloth and store it in the walk-in fridge.

It’s used for Chardon’s fries, which at $12 an order arrive at the table with a golden hue. It’s fried in then tallow and then tossed in duck fat with herbs and garlic. 

“You don’t want to give them sticker shock with a $40 order of fries,” Miller said.

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