Celery Salad with Toasted Walnuts, Medjool Dates, and Piave Vecchio Cheese

This is a simple salad that we get a lot of questions about at the restaurant. Guests seem to think there’s more to it ... some kind of kitchen trick. Again, I think whatever magic there is just lies in the freshness of a few key ingredients (mainly the mint and the lemons), as well as the sharpness of your knife. If Piave Vecchio proves elusive, our old favorite Parmigiano-Reggiano will work well here. We’ve also had great success using smoky Idiazábal, though it’s less of a 1:1 replacemen