Qantas

Butter goes bold

In the hands of a new breed of chefs, bread’s faithful sidekick is stepping out of the shadows and into the limelight.

- Story by LARISSA DUBECKI

It’s an unassailab­le truth that butter makes everything better. Just ask any French chef. Or Julia Child. But modern restaurant­s are taking an exciting leap forward by taking butter to another level. From commonplac­e table condiment, butter is turning into a hero ingredient. Even when still hanging out in the company of bread, it can be used as a flag-waver: look no further than the seaweed butter at Shannon Bennett’s Iki-Jime (ikijime.com.au), a fishfocuse­d Melbourne restaurant where the concoction is so ocean-rich, it’s almost like plankton. Neither does Momofuku Seiōbo (seiobo.momofuku.com) skimp on the good stuff. At David Chang’s Sydney restaurant, executive chef Paul Carmichael uses local brand Pepe Saya’s creamy, hand-churned cultured butter to take a humble piece of roti from street to star. And at Adelaide’s upmarket oceanfront fish and chip shop, SeaSalt (seasaltbys­ea.com.au), an Ortiz anchovy draped over a charry toast soldier is the must-order item. The element that elevates it? Salted egg yolk butter that adds richness and a delicious dash of complexity. Jock Zonfrillo also thinks outside the square at his Adelaide restaurant Orana (restaurant­orana.com), with a scene-setting potato damper served on hot coals with a luscious lamb-fat butter bearing all the olfactory hallmarks of a good roast. More aromatic thrills with an Australian slant are to be found at Melbourne’s high-flying Attica (attica.com.au), where pearl meat in lemon-myrtle butter is delivered to the table encased in a paperbark bundle for diners to unwrap like it’s culinary Christmas. Best thing of all? “Eat it with your fingers,” advises chef Ben Shewry. “It’s better that way.”

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