Paul Petersen, executive chef at the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas, used to play drums for two San Antonio bands in the 1990s.

Paul Petersen, executive chef at the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas, looks like a rocker. For a time in the 1990s, he played one.

The former drummer for San Antonio bands Gollum and Scary Manilow decided to switch to cooking, training at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

He still loves rock as well as country and alternative.

"If I had only one band to listen to on a deserted island for the rest of my life it would be Depeche Mode," he says.

Getting ready for the dinner rush can mean pumping up the volume. "Queens of the Stone Age and Social Distortion are my two favorite bands, but I cannot deny the Melvins. We play them when it is really hectic, and it is seriously getting ready to go down."

He started out with legendary band Kiss: "The first record I ever got was in 1976 and it was Destroyer."

The San Antonio native hasn't strayed far from the state's musical roots. "As far as Texas goes, I really like Dale Watson and Kevin Fowler, who are both country artists."

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Paul's profile is in the Texas Living: People & Places section in the January 2008 issue of Southern Living.