The Menu: The best of Ireland's raw-milk cheese

Plus: Smokey business in West Cork; reflections on Paradiso, and Irish oysters

Tom Burgess in Coolattin Farm's maturing room

Raw appeal of Irish Farmhouse Cheese

There are few more essential foods in The Menu’s weekly shopping basket than the finest Irish farmhouse cheese. He carries an especial grá for those remaining raw milk cheeses which are the grand cru of what is one of the world’s finest national cheeseboards, so is only too delighted to herald impending Irish Raw Milk Cheese Week (May 8-14) to promote those aristocrats of the artisan cheesemaking sector, a rare occasion when he is happy to employ that greatly traduced word, ‘artisan’.