On one misty morning in Lyon, France back in spring of 2015, hardly anyone noticed when the US team showed up for competition at the Bocuse D'or, the semiannual world culinary championships. By that afternoon, people realized that this team of Americans were not the same as teams of years past who had come away empty handed.

This team had come to cook and win.

The team, led by Phil Tessier, walked away with the silver medal for the first time in the history of the competition. Two years later, with Tessier as head coach, they walked away with gold.

In this podcast, I talk to Phil Tessier about this journey to Bocuse, what changed, and what it was like competing that day. We also talk about his day job at Hestan Smart Cooking, where he is the culinary director and works with a team of technologists, culinary experts and more as they try to forge the future of cooking.