Growing up in Meadville, Pennsylvania, TV inspired Peters to cook. Watching episodes of Great Chefs of the World, he became determined to pursue a career as a chef. After high school, he attended Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh and then started his career at Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. But America’s culinary mecca—New York City—was calling.

Upon arriving in New York, he took a job at Alain Ducasse’s Adour in the St. Regis New York before Thomas Keller’s Per Se hired him in 2009. Inside the kitchen, he ascended from commis to chef de partie and eventually to sous chef of the three-Michelin-starred restaurant. Not long after, Keller shoulder-tapped Peters to relocate to his flagship, the French Laundry, to be a sous chef; eventually, Peters returned to Per Se in 2013 to accept a promotion to executive sous chef.

In 2015, Team U.S.A. held a competition in Las Vegas to determine who would represent the U.S. in the 2017 finals in Lyon, France. Peters entered and won the competition. For the next year, he’d train for the world finals, where he’d need to create elaborate dishes for a chance to win. He took his team to victory, becoming the first US team to win gold at the most prestigious cooking competition in the world, The Bocuse D’or.

Now working as a culinary consultant, Peters won’t be returning to Napa or New York; instead, he’s planning to open a restaurant in Austin, Texas.