CAMDEN — Herbert Günther Peters, 89, passed away peacefully at his home in Camden, on October 20, 2023, with his family by his side. He lived his first twenty-six years in Germany, the next decade in New York City, and spent the last five decades teaching, raising a family, and running successful restaurants in the Camden-Rockport area. He was well-known for his generosity, hospitality, work ethic, and the stories he told about his life experiences.

Herbert was born on March 31, 1934, in Oberhausen, Germany, to Hermann and Hildegaard Peters (nee Pütz), the second of seven children. Herbert was five and a half years old when the Second World War began. At age seven, in 1942, his mother sent Herbert and his younger sister Brigitte to live with their Uncle Anton, a village priest in the small town Erbstetten, in the Swabian region of southern Germany. In the village, Herbert became an eager student of Catholic rituals, served as an altar boy, and undertook the duties necessary to run a farm and a church during wartime. When Herbert was twelve, he was sent to prepare for the priesthood at St. Paulusheim Seminary School in Bruchsal, Germany, where he studied for eight years. Ultimately, seminary life and the priesthood weren’t for Herbert, and he would often sneak through the seminary’s vineyard to reach the city’s downtown.

In his late teens and early twenties, Herbert lived in Wilster, Hamburg, and Renhardsweiler, Germany. He studied Jesuit theology in Mainz and journalism at the Universities of Hamburg and Munich. Between 1955 and 1960, he lived in Wiesbaden, where, after winning a local writing competition, he began working as a journalist for the Wiesbaden Courier and Frankfurt Allgemeiner. He spoke of the many colorful characters he met at his favorite bar in Wiesbaden. Eventually, a German newspaper in New York City offered him a job as a German-language journalist. Herbert accepted and, at twenty-six years old, packed up his cello, clothes, and favorite books; he arrived in the United States on August 21, 1960, aboard a passenger ship.

Not long after moving to the United States, Herbert shifted gears away from journalism and began working his way up in the restaurant business. He started at The Bridge Diner and, later, the New Bedford Hotel, both in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He became fluent in English while washing dishes and baking. Soon after, he moved to New York City, where he was trained in restaurant hospitality and cooking at Longchamps and the Sign of the Dove. Herbert often told vivid stories about his years at Sign of the Dove, a high-end restaurant where he waited on actors and public figures. During this period, he shared life with his first wife, Marlene, a German artist.

Herbert began visiting Maine in the late 1960s during the summers, purchasing the Awahnee Motel on Route 1 near Lincolnville. He eventually moved to Rockport, opening the Kitchen Bazaar, a specialty kitchen cookware shop where Bleeker & Greer is now located and which was originally the Rockport School House. He was soon recruited as the chef-manager at the Thorndike Hotel in Rockland, which was funded by the sculptor Louise Nevelson and her brother Nathan Berliawsky. Becoming a well-known chef in the area, he was recruited by American financier Clarence Dillon to be his private chef on Islesboro, Maine, and Dunwalke Farm in Far Hills, New Jersey. After Dillon passed away, Herbert became the chef-manager of the Eliot House in downtown Bath, Maine.

In the early 1970s, Herbert met Eleanor Masin, his life’s partner and wife, when they worked together at the Thorndike Hotel and the Camden Manor. As a couple, Herbert and Eleanor opened and ran the Thomaston Café and Bakery for twenty-four years (1990-2014), providing year-round, high-quality meals for the mid-coast area. Herbert baked and cooked using fresh, local ingredients, insisting that, food-wise, Maine was as rich as Southern France. “Clearly a chef, no mere cook, is at work here,” noted a New York Times blurb about the café. Regular customers remarked on Herbert’s hospitality; he always remembered the names of their loved ones and asked about their well-being.

Herbert was not just a chef, however, but also taught and wrote about food and consulted on many restaurants throughout Maine. In 1979, he became an instructor of food trades at the Region 8 Vocational School in Rockland (now Mid-Coast School of Technology), a position he would hold for two decades. He relished mentoring his students, placing many in jobs in local bakeries and restaurants, and helping them win cooking and baking competitions. In 1988, the Maine Culinary Association recognized Herbert as the Maine Chef of the Year, an award given while he was teaching. In the 1980s, he also became a restaurant critic for the Bangor Daily News and later contributed recipes to the cookbook Creative Coastal Cooking. Local restaurant owners frequently recruited him for his expertise to consult on their operations. He opened the first kitchen at the Camden Manor, now the Camden Harbor Inn and Natalie’s; he helped turn the house across the street from the Vocational School into a restaurant called the Benner House (now Primo). “Common sense is all you need for a simple, good, honest meal,” Herbert said about his cooking philosophy in his award profile for the Bangor Daily News.

Together, Herbert and Eleanor raised daughters Emily and Eva Rogals, and two sons, Peter and Jonathan Masin-Peters. Family was Herbert’s priority and focus — everything he did was in support of them. As the Second World War fractured his family as a child, he was clear that he would do whatever he could to support his own family as an adult. Herbert worked tirelessly to provide for his children, and never missed one of his sons’ sports games. He always put one hundred and ten percent into everything he did, whether baking a Danish at the Thomaston Café or mentoring a student at the Vocational School.

During his few hours of downtime, Herbert loved to read, cook for family, prepare holiday dinners, and take day trips. When he was younger, he enjoyed Rex Stout’s culinary mysteries, the cookbooks of Craig Claiborne, and shared his love of the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and Pablo Neruda with Eleanor. He loved going to bookstores and restaurants — especially Peter Ott’s, his son Peter’s restaurant — and later in life, he enjoyed reading about Edna St. Vincent Millay and collecting her books.

Herbert was an active volunteer in his community — for many years, he served as a judge for the Rockland Lobster Festival, the Common Ground Fair, and the Union Fair. He participated in the kitchen tour fundraisers for Merryspring Park and enjoyed working with his students to prepare meals for Meals on Wheels.

After retiring from the café in 2014, Herbert enjoyed tending to his garden, reading, sharing time and dinners with his wife, children, and grandchildren, recounting stories of his time in New York and Germany, eating ice cream, watching birds, and enjoying many of life’s other small pleasures. He especially enjoyed going to Peter Ott’s with Eleanor and family and Waterman’s Beach and McLoon’s Lobster Shack. With his daughter Emily, he shared a love of gardening and cooking; with his son Peter, a talent for the restaurant business and work ethic; with his son Jonathan, a love of books and reading; and with his daughter Eva, a love of New York City and commitment to family.

For the first time in four decades, Herbert visited Europe in 2001, reconnecting with his siblings in Germany and England. In subsequent years, he returned to visit England and Germany multiple times, enjoying visits with his sisters Marie-Luise and Marlene. He was especially happy to reconnect with his youngest sister Marie-Luise. Messaging with her was one of the highlights of his final months. He had fond memories of Marie-Luise visiting Maine from England with her husband David, daughter Juliet, and friend Venetia.

Herbert is survived by his wife, Eleanor Masin-Peters of Camden; son Peter Masin-Peters and his wife, Jamie Masin-Peters of Camden; son Jonathan Masin-Peters and his partner Anna Wherry of Boston, Massachusetts; daughter Emily Rogals and her husband, Paul Finden of Belfast, Maine; daughter Eva Rogals Weiss and her husband Mark Weiss of Brooklyn, New York; sister Marie-Luise Holdsworth of Farnham, England; sister Marlene Blaswich of Oberhausen, Germany; and sister Brigitte Grosse of Berlin, Germany.

Herbert is also survived by his grandchildren, Amber, Ramonna, Hunter, Maxwell, Abigail, Stella, and Bodhi, as well as great-grandchildren Arlo, Roman, Amelia, Fiona, and Isla. He loved being surrounded by family.

He is predeceased by his parents, Hermann and Hildegaard Peters, his uncle Anton Birkenmayer, sisters Dorit Blaswich and Marta Peters, and brother Werner Peters of Germany.

The family would like to say a special thank you to the hospice care team, especially Mallory Connory, RN, and Brandie Bickford, CNA; to the staff at the Sussman House; and to the several family, friends, and neighbors who offered care and assistance in recent months.

A private graveside service was at Mountain View Cemetery in Camden on October 27, 2023. The celebration of his life will be announced.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Meals on Wheels www.mchinc.org; Camden Area District Nursing Association. P.O. Box 547, Camden, ME 04843; or the Sussman House, 41 Anchor Drive, Rockport, ME 04856.

We welcome and encourage you to share your memories of Herbert via an online Tribute Book here www.longfuneralhomecamden.com.

Arrangements are with the Long Funeral Home, 9 Mountain Street, Camden.