Some contemporary culinary trends – the kind born, and laid to rest, on social media platforms within weeks (if not days) – are often dismissed as a superficial flash in the pan. Just a banal fad, like dalgona coffee, that capitalised on a captive audience with nothing to do. But belying these banal fads are certain undeniable truths. Case in point, the recent assault of butter boards. These aesthetically-pleasing constructions of softened butter, artfully smeared as waves and swirls on hardwood boards, ornamented with jam, honey, bread and other eye-pleasing nibbles, point not just to the allure of beauty, but of butter itself. Butter, after all, is at the centre of many beautiful culinary inventions. The creation of butter is itself an art form honed for multiple millennia across a myriad of cultures. But none have made it quite as iconic as France, where a combination of fertile, grassy plains and a temperate climate have engendered an ideal ecosystem for smallholder family-run cattle farms. Candia Professional is a 51-year-old brand that leans on the collective cattle-raising knowledge of these 12,541 farms, gathered under its parent company and France’s largest dairy cooperative, Sodiaal. It is Candia’s unwavering commitment to these farmers that allows the brand to churn out some of the best butter known to man, using only milk that can be traced every step of the way back to the cow it came from. Take the brand’s Extra Taste Incorporation Butter for example. It is pure, unadulterated goodness through and through, hewn purely from French cream within 72 hours of harvest. This guarantees a fresh tasting product that uplifts, rather than obscures, the flavours of other ingredients in recipes it is used in.