France is the leading Eurozone market for Irish food and drink products, and the second largest global market after the UK. It’s Ireland’s biggest customer for lamb and seafood, second largest for beef, and third for whiskey.
Anyone who has young children will be familiar with cheese strings, a lunch box staple. It’s made by Kerry Foods, who make a version for French children called Ficello – more than a million Ficello are sold each week. Neven meets Arnaud Laurent, head of marketing in France for Kerry Foods to discover how it is that, in a country where there are more than 365 different cheeses, one of French children’s favourite cheeses is made in Co Cork.
At the other end of the scale, Neven also meets a neighbourhood cheesemonger who has just started to sell Irish artisan cheeses. Tonight’s menu includes French onion soup with an Irish twist, herb crusted turbot with potato purée and chive velouté, and sticky toffee pudding with Irish whiskey.
