I’ve known Grant for many years – right from the early years of Ampersand. His enthusiasm and dedication to honing his amazing cultured butter in a barn on the farm was infectious. Once I tasted his amazing butter, it was the only thing I served at my home restaurant gaining endless praise from my guests. His products are the staple of just about every Michelin starred restaurant in the UK and beyond and well worth seeking out – you won’t regret it!
Ampersand is a UK dairy specialising in butter.
Since 2014, we’ve made salted cultured butter with a fuller, richer and more deeply buttery flavour. We start with cream and add live cultures. The cultured cream is barrel churned, then the butter is worked carefully and salt is kneaded through for balance.
Where it began
Ampersand began after our founder Grant Harrington, tasted a butter that changed his benchmark while cooking and serving in one of the world’s highest-rated restaurants in remote Scandinavia.
A year of development followed, working through cultures, cream, salting, texture and process before launch.
Today, our butter is used in homes, kitchens and counters across the UK, and has been served in restaurants holding more than 80 Michelin stars collectively.
Why butter matters
Around 20 litres of milk go into a kilo of butter.
Before that, there is grass, cows, milking, separating, chilling, handling and care.
Butter looks simple, but it has never been a small thing to make.
Historic price records show that in 1870, butter cost 13¼d per pound. Adjusted by inflation and wages, that is about £95 per kilo today.
That does not mean butter needs to be expensive. It means good butter has always had value.
Modern food has often been pushed towards lower price and convenience.
But cheap food usually means somebody absorbs the cost elsewhere:
- the farmer
- the producer
- the soil
- the animals
- or the quality itself.
So we thought, let’s:
- Make butter properly.
- Pay properly.
- Use exceptional cream.
- Take our time.
- Respect the ingredient.
- And make something worth valuing again.
Our aim is simple: to keep raising the standard of butter and premium dairy, with flavour at the centre of everything we make.
