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A NY Times article says it's a waste:

After I’d heated them, none of the olive oils had much olive flavor left. In fact, they didn’t taste much different from the seed oils.

But How to Cook Everything says it's a good idea:

There is a myth that olive oil is not good for frying; on the contrary, it adds a delicious flavor to many savory fried foods.

OMG which one is it?

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    In my experience it is a.) a waste of good olive oil, because you won't taste much of it that way, and b.) depending on the kind of oil and the temperature, a slightly burned taste. However, in the end the bitter taste won't matter much in most dishes—although it doesn't add anything either. I believe the proper Mediterranean way is to sprinkle good olive oil on your food right before serving. That's how I and many others do it. My impression is that frying in olive oil is mostly done by people who like the idea of it rather than the way their actual food tastes.
    – Cerberus
    Mar 22, 2013 at 22:36
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    See Why does my olive oil smoke/burn when I fry with it? and Can extra virgin olive oil be used for stir frying, roasting, grilling?.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Mar 22, 2013 at 22:45
  • Also Why should I use olive oil? I don't think there's much more we can say about this topic that hasn't already been said.
    – Aaronut
    Mar 23, 2013 at 0:37
  • For what it's worth with respect to your version of the question, Harold McGee (the author of that NY Times column) actually carefully tries things, so you can generally trust him.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Mar 23, 2013 at 1:36
  • Right. If you dig deeper, you'll notice a conspicuous lack of evidence from the folks claiming that olive oil is just super awesome for everything, whereas the ones saying that heating basically destroys olive oil generally have research and experimentation to back up their claims.
    – Aaronut
    Mar 23, 2013 at 13:47

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