About Matt Peters
Matt Peters is a Meadville, Pennsylvania native, Le Cordon Bleu Pittsburgh graduate, and the first American chef in history to win gold at the Bocuse d’Or. He built his classical foundation at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida before moving to New York City to cook at Alain Ducasse’s Adour. In 2009 he joined Thomas Keller’s Per Se, eventually moving to The French Laundry and returning to Per Se as Executive Sous Chef. It was Keller who encouraged him to compete internationally. In 2015 Peters won the US Bocuse d’Or selection and then spent more than a year in intensive preparation, training under Philip Tessier (2015 silver medalist). In January 2017 he and commis Harrison Turone became the first Americans in the competition’s history to take gold, winning with their interpretation of chicken and crayfish and a first-ever wholly vegetal platter.
After the Bocuse d’Or, Peters relocated to Austin, Texas, where his wife and fellow French Laundry alum Lorin Peters is from. He spent several years consulting before opening Prélude in 2024, an intimate cocktail and canapé lounge at 707 W. 10th St. in West Central Austin, conceived as the first act of his forthcoming full-service restaurant, Maven. In early 2026 Peters closed Prélude and announced that Maven, with construction set for 2025 and a Winter 2026 opening target, is the next chapter. He also competed on CBS’s America’s Culinary Cup, Padma Lakshmi’s new $1 million competition series featuring the country’s most decorated chefs, making him the sole Texas chef in the inaugural season.
Episode Overview
In this episode, André Natera sits down with Matt Peters to trace the full arc of the career that produced the only Bocuse d’Or gold medal in American history, and to understand what comes next. Peters is one of the most technically accomplished chefs alive, and one of the least publicly visible until now. The conversation covers his path from Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh to Alain Ducasse to Thomas Keller’s kitchens at Per Se and The French Laundry, and what each of those environments actually built in him technically and professionally.
They go deep on the Bocuse d’Or itself: what more than a year of dedicated competition preparation looks like, what the judging criteria actually measure, and what it felt like to be the first American team to stand at the top of the podium in the competition’s three-decade history. Peters also talks candidly about the years he spent working privately in Austin before going public with Prélude, how the cocktail lounge concept functioned as a launching pad, the decision to close Prélude, and what Maven will represent when it opens. The episode closes with his experience on America’s Culinary Cup and what competing for a $1 million prize in front of a national television audience is like after spending a career at the highest technical levels of the craft.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Growing up in Meadville, Pennsylvania and how Great Chefs of the World on television set his direction
- The classical foundation built at Le Cordon Bleu Pittsburgh and early career at the Ritz-Carlton Naples
- Working at Alain Ducasse’s Adour and what that environment taught him
- Joining Thomas Keller’s Per Se and The French Laundry and rising to Executive Sous Chef
- How Keller encouraged him to compete internationally and what that push meant for his career
- More than a year of Bocuse d’Or preparation and what that level of competition training actually requires
- Winning gold in 2017 as the first Americans in the competition’s history to reach the top of the podium
- The years spent consulting and cooking privately in Austin before going public
- Opening Prélude, its purpose as a launching pad, and the decision to close it
- Maven: what the forthcoming full-service restaurant represents and when it opens
- Competing on CBS’s America’s Culinary Cup for a $1 million prize
Guest
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