This year, for the first time in the 30-years of the Bocuse d’Or, Team USA took home the gold medal. Cooking in the last station (box five, which allowed them to be the last thing in the judges’ minds) on day two of competition (no one cooking on day one of the competition has ever won), Team USA beat out Norway (the gold medal winners of 2015) and Iceland, who took home silver and bronze respectively. The unprecedented win comes on the heels of chef Philip Tessier’s silver medal win at the last Bocuse d’Or in 2015. Although it was America’s first podium appearance, the victory was bittersweet—out of 2,000 points, Tessier was a mere nine shy of winning the whole thing. This year, after a month of letting the excitement soak in, Robb Report sat down with this year’s competitor, chef Mathew Peters, and his coach, Tessier, to hear first-hand about the road to gold—and why Tessier chose to not to be a contender.
Gold has been a long journey for you, chef Tessier.
Chef Tessier: It’s been a four-year journey with a fairytale American ending. For me [in 2015], there was no history was success. There was no history of winning. It was a huge risk. After the competition, the [winning] Norwegian candidate said he had picked me to win. In my mind, that was a golden trophy.
Is that why you decided to coach this year?
Chef Tessier: It was tempting to compete again, but I didn’t feel like I had anything left to prove. My ultimate goal was that we got gold, and I knew there was somebody out there who had new energy and new excitement. I had spoken to Mat and was excited about him. He’s an artist.
Chef Peters, did you know you had done enough to win gold?
Chef Peters: We didn’t watch the first day, so we had no idea what anyone else did. It was up in the air. You have no idea how other people will perceive your food.
And competition is always riddled with unexpected curve balls and unforeseen blunders.
Chef Peters: That’s the fun of cooking! [Commis] Harrison broke all of his tuiles and had to remake them. This put us 20 minutes behind, which was a big hurdle. He fought all the way back. Not many 21-year-old cooks could do that, let alone experienced chefs!
Coach Tessier: Harrison was behind, and I’m thinking, “Aw man, this is going to be a rough road.” I looked at Mat and said, “We’re going to have to help him out. Take the lobster Stromboli, and let’s do this.” They kept their cool and pushed through, which is a testament to their training and determination. The biggest challenge was actually these potato garnishes with a butter-fried shell. Left in the butter too long, they get thick. Sure enough, they stuck [to the sheet] like glue. Mat put them in the steamer, meanwhile I’m texting my parents, “Please pray these things come off.”