(NYTimes) - A team of American chefs on Wednesday won the biennial Bocuse d’Or culinary competition — the equivalent of the Olympics for professional cooks — for the first time in the contest’s 30-year history.

In the finals in Lyon, France, a group of 10 chefs and helpers from the United States won the gold medal. Norway took the silver medal, and Iceland won the bronze. In 2015 an American team was awarded the silver medal in the competition, which was founded by the French chef Paul Bocuse. Teams from 24 countries competed this year.

“I promised Monsieur Paul 10 years ago that we’d make it to the top of the podium,” said the chef Thomas Keller, who is the president of Team U.S.A. “We made it in nine.”

The team’s head chef was Mathew Peters, 33, from Meadville, Pa., who was most recently the executive sous-chef of Mr. Keller’s New York restaurant, Per Se. His commis, or helper, was Harrison Turone, 21, from Omaha, who also worked at Per Se.

Both of the chefs took a year off to prepare for the contest, a fierce competition in which the American team is made up of younger chefs who can spare the time to train.