Australian taste buds and food have changed a lot in 30 years. We love and will pay top prices for proper coffee, stinky cheese, and top-of-the-range wines and olive oils.

Now butter has joined that list.

Nine years ago Pierre Issa, a small businessman specialising in food, asked Sydney's top chefs why they served French-cultured butter instead of Australian.

They told him French butter was the best in the world.

"They said Australian butter tastes like salt and water so there was obviously a complaint about not so much the quality but the flavour," Mr Issa said.

"We have a very big dairy industry in Australia and you put one and one together and you ask 'why aren't they buying Australian butter and why aren't we catering to that market?'"

So he set up Pepe Saya, his own cultured butter business, and started selling at farmers' markets.

It took off when chef Neil Perry asked him to supply Qantas with butter for first-class passengers.

"It told the rest of the industry that these guys are the real deal, they have what it takes to supply to our planes," Mr Isse said.

The business of cultured butter is on the rise in Australia. ( ABC News: Dave Hudspeth )

Three factory upgrades later, Mr Issa uses 20 tonnes of cream to produce 10,000 kilograms of rich, robust-cultured butter every week.

"We get the cream and put a lactobacillus culture in it, ferment it for 24 hours, and then age it for about four weeks," he said.

"By then it smells very ripe — it's off cream — then it's churned, shaped, and wrapped."

Pepe Saya produces cultured butter for farmers' markets and Qantas passengers. ( ABC Landline: Pip Courtney )

An essential ingredient

His butter is the key ingredient in Sonoma Bakery's croissants.

The Sydney business sells 15,000 a week.

"Butter is the most important part of a good croissant," Sonoma's Jordan Miller said.

"Pierre's butter is slightly sour in flavour. It's got more character to it, a lot more depth than regular butter."

Croissants being prepared at Sonoma Bakery. ( ABC Landline: Pip Courtney )

Mr Isse's protege Olivia Morrison missed his butter so much when she moved to Northern Tasmania she started her own cultured butter company in a tiny converted laundry under her house.

She kneads, presses, and wraps 100kg of butter a week to sell at the Launceston Harvest Market.

A 250-gram packet costs $9, but she sells out every week and has done for the past three years.

Ms Morrison knew quitting her IT job for artisan butter was the right move when a three Michelin-starred French chef gave her some feedback.

"Alain Passard tried my butter and said it's the best salted butter he's ever had. So I have that tick, I think I am on the right track," she said.

Croissants made with butter from Tasmanian Butter Co. ( ABC News: Dave Hudspeth )

She recently quit the market stall to run her own cafe, specialising in bread and pastries made with cultured butter.

She is building a new, larger factory on the site which will triple production.

The cream of the crop

Tasmania has a second artisan butter producer which sells to top restaurants and delicatessens around Australia.

A sign from vendors at the Launceston Harvest Market. ( ABC Landline: Pip Courtney )

Meander Valley Dairy's David Bennett said although a lot of cultured butter is still being imported, there was a growing demand for the homegrown product.

"They're seen as premium, but the product being produced in Australia with our grass-fed cows and our rich, yellow cream means we get quite a distinct flavour in our butter," he said.

One problem producers face is sourcing cream.

A drop in milk production and a switch back to higher-fat dairy products means there was less available.

"The supply of cream's been a huge challenge for us, but also the cost of cream has skyrocketed, almost doubling in the last four years," Mr Bennett said.

While troubling for butter makers, Ms Morrison is hoping it encourages more markets for dairy farmers.

"At the moment in Tasmania only two per cent of milk production is for small producers and the rest goes to big companies. So the more little guys get, the better," she said.

"There'll be more diversity and even better value for producers."

Ms Morrison hopes the cultured butter market will give more options to dairy producers. ( ABC News: Dave Hudspeth )

Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline this Sunday at 12:30pm or on iview.