McKay Wilday is a fascinating guy. He gives off a calm, unflappable and very assured vibe and he comes out with the most unexpected things. I knew I was going to enjoy talking more to him, having spoken briefly to him when I was writing about Alta Trattoria, the restaurant he owns with Carlo Grossi, James Tait and Luke Drum for Broadsheet. I knew he was Grossi alumnus and I knew he had worked at Geranium in Copenhagen (one of last year’s top 50 restaurants). I did not know, and how would I, that he once dreamed of being a concert pianist and that one of his first cooking jobs involved being in a pool of live lobster and carefully selecting the night’s catch without them wrapping around his legs. McKay has a wealth of knowledge about Ligurian and, in fact other Italian regional food and this chat was absolutely worth being up early on the Saturday morning of a long weekend.