Chefs in China take a deep whiff of dairy

SHANGHAI - In an industrial kitchen in a leafy, residential suburb of central Shanghai, a quiet culinary evolution is taking place.

Beside shelves stacked with butter mounds the size of bread loaves and 11 pound (5 kilogram) cheese wheels, chefs are experimenting with exotic ingredients that their New Zealand supplier, Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd, wants to become ubiquitous in China: dairy.

While commonplace in Western diets, cream, cheese and butter are seldom used in commercial Chinese kitchens. Dairy exporters are working to change that.