Maximo Lopez May & Regional Director Culinary, Hyatt Hotel Corp.

Born in 1976 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Maximo Lopez grew up in a family where the love for cooking breathed in the air.  His first professional experience was at Buenos Aires Restaurant Llers, and in 1995 he joined Great Chef Francis Mallmann at his restaurant in Uruguay.

In 1996, he returned to Buenos Aires to work under Great Chef Pablo Massey at his new restaurant, Massey’s.  In 1999, the Great Chefs television crew showed up to tape Chef Lopez for their Great Chefs of the World series for the Discovery Channel (Chef Lopez is in episode # 156).

In 2000, he was offered to open the River Café in Sydney, Australia, followed by the opening of Bistro Argentino and the Soho House in Manhattan, New York. In 2004, he returned to Argentina to take over the kitchen at La Corte.  The following year in 2005, the Park Hyatt in Buenos Aires asked him to join their staff of the Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt as sous chef.

In 2007, he was asked to move to New York City to handle the kitchens as executive chef of the new chain of Andaz Hyatt hotels.  In 2012, Hyatt returned him to the Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt as executive chef.  Two years later, 2014, Playa Hotels and Resorts appointed him as corporate chef for all their properties in Mexico and the Caribbean.  In 2015, Hyatt stole him back as Regional Director of Culinary for Hyatt, and moved him to Chicago, where he remains today in 2016.