Chaps at head of table tucking into meal cooked with cheese (8)
I believe the answer is:
emmental
'cheese' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'chaps at head of table tucking into meal cooked' is the wordplay.
'chaps' becomes 'men' (I've seen this before).
'at' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'head of' says to take the initial letters.
'tucking into' indicates putting letters inside.
'cooked' indicates anagramming the letters.
The initial letter of 'table' is 't'.
'men'+'t'='ment'
'meal' is an anagram of 'emal'.
'ment' placed into 'emal' is 'EMMENTAL'.
'with' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for emmental that I've seen before include "Swiss 8 across" , "Gruyere-like cheese" , "Swiss cheese with large holes" , "Cheese for the metal men" , "Holy swiss cheese" .)