Monica Cavarsan turns a love for French cultured butter into Ocean Grove-based Lard Ass Butter, featuring Australia’s first dedicated butter tasting room.
Reporting by Nyah Barnes for the Bellarine Times details the story of Monica Cavarsan, founder of Ocean Grove-based Lard Ass Butter, who turned a lifelong connection to dairy into a thriving artisanal cultured butter business. Raised on her family’s dairy farm in Timboon, Victoria—established after her parents emigrated from Italy—Cavarsan grew up surrounded by dairy production, though she initially pursued a career outside agriculture.
Her perspective shifted during a 2016 trip to Europe, where she encountered traditional French cultured butter. Inspired by its rich, tangy flavor profile and culinary versatility compared to standard Australian commercial spreads, Cavarsan resolved to bring authentic cultured butter-making techniques home. To master the trade, she traveled to the United States to complete the Wisconsin Buttermakers Apprenticeship Workshop at the Centre for Dairy Research, becoming the program’s first international graduate.
Shortly after returning to Australia, a job redundancy provided the unexpected catalyst to launch her commercial enterprise. Cavarsan invested her severance payout directly into processing equipment, including a professional butter churn, establishing Lard Ass Butter’s production facility in Ocean Grove. The operation has since expanded to include one of Australia’s only dedicated butter tasting rooms, offering visitors a winery-style tasting experience to learn about traditional fermentation and churning methods.
Looking toward future growth, Cavarsan plans to invest in on-site pasteurization and milk separation capabilities at her Ocean Grove plant. The upgrade will allow her to source raw milk directly from her family’s active Timboon dairy farm, creating single-origin cultured butter that highlights local terroir while reinforcing her family’s agricultural heritage.
In addition to growing her wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales channels, Cavarsan is expanding into publishing later this year with The Butter Cookbook, recognized as the first Australian book dedicated exclusively to butter. Through traditional techniques and community engagement, Lard Ass Butter reflects a broader consumer movement toward authentic, slow-crafted dairy foods that celebrate provenance.
Source: Bellarine Times
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