about

Chris Torla attended the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.  A scholarship brought him to the School for American Chefs at Beringer Vineyards in Napa Valley.  He began his career in New Hampshire with a stop in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Later, he returned to the San Francisco Bay area to further refine his culinary skills at some of Northern California’s premiere restaurants, including Mustard’s and Fog City Diner.

In 1998, a nationwide search brought Chris to Connecticut where he joined Max Restaurant Group as the executive chef at Max Downtown.  With Chef Torla at the helm, Max Downtown earned 3-stars from CT Magazine and a 26 rating from Zagat’s Restaurant Survey.

Those successes led to a partnership with Richard Rosenthal in the new Trumbull Kitchen in Hartford.  In addition to the challenges of being an executive chef, he now has the added responsibilities of owning and managing a hip, new restaurant.

Chris is active in his community as well.  He has made several appearances on local cooking shows and has been showcased at numerous charity cooking events.  His recipes and menu ideas have also been featured in national publications.

For the past two decades, Megan Smallidge has devoted much of her life to working in the service industry. She spent nearly 5 years working in some of the most iconic restaurants in the historic French Quarter of New Orleans. After the devastation brought on from Hurricane Katrina, she focused on helping to rebuild and restore the communities in which she lived and worked. In 2008 she returned home to Connecticut, joining the MAX family as “the happy hour girl” at Max Fish in Glastonbury. She spent over 10 years at that location, working almost every position in the front of house before joining the management team in 2019. A few years later, after spending some time at the flagship restaurant Max Downtown, she took on the role of general manager at Max’s Trumbull Kitchen in Hartford. Megan carries with her an unrelenting enthusiasm and infectious positivity and is dedicated to workforce development, hospitality, staff education and training, and support to all her team members and guests alike.