Whipped, hip and drizzled in honey: why Britain is back in love with butter

Chefs and fashionable restaurants are ditching the olive oil and embracing the nostalgic charm of dairy

The signature dish at Holm, a hip and hyperseasonal restaurant in Somerset, is not the Cornish pollack or local cobnuts. It’s the butter.

“We whip ours in a KitchenAid until it becomes like meringue,” says Holm’s founder and chef, Nicholas Balfe. “We do this for two reasons: it makes it light, which gives you licence to put more on your bread. And two, so you can just swipe your bread through it. Butter has become more than [just butter] – it’s a dip, a condiment and a standalone ingredient.”