This former GA chef could win ‘Top Chef’ show this season. Here’s what to know so far

In Bravo’s newest season of Top Chef, Georgia is being represented by not one, but two talented chefs, although one was sadly sent home during the first episode. The remaining “cheftestant,” Chef Jennifer Lee Jackson grew up in Statham, near Athens and currently lives in and works in Michigan with her partner, and fellow competitor, Justin Tootla.

The 23rd season of the Bravo show is set in the Carolinas and Jackson is a top contender, creating some of the judges’ most highly praised dishes. She fuses her Southern roots with her classical training and her restaurant, Voyager, has landed her on the Best Restaurant lists of Food & Wine, Eater and Thrillist.

It started with a chicken biscuit

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Justin, she trained at some of the country’s most prestigious kitchens. Before any of that, however, there were biscuits.

Jackson’s cooking philosophy starts in two very different kitchens: her paternal grandmother Nanny’s in Georgia, and her maternal grandmother Mozzy’s in West Virginia.

Her Nanny made small, delicate biscuits using a juice cup as a cutter, placed neatly on a tray while her Mozzy’s were bigger and denser, leading her to create her own version.

This became the foundation of Big Girl, a pandemic-era pop-up she and Tootla built around fried chicken biscuits and smash burgers.

Her dad owned Winder Bear Speedway, where she spent many summers cooking chicken sandwiches and burgers at the concession stand. She describes it as full-circle with everything that came after.

Comfortable in the Carolinas

Jackson says she was nervous, not intimidated, when she found out the show would shoot in Asheville and Charlotte. The added component of cooking southern food on southern turf created an added level of pressure that she had to prepare for.

She admits Tootla did a little more hands-on practice, but her version of preparation was a little more relaxed.

“Honestly, that last summer we were so busy, he would get up super early in the morning, [but] I just didn’t have time, nor did I feel like practicing to be honest, so I would just take cookbooks to the beach,” she said

Jackson says she hadn’t cooked southern food “in her style” in a long time, and the season pushed her back into that territory.

The Midwest influence

Jackson didn’t leave the South behind when she headed north, she found it again in Detroit. She said she found familiarity in the Detroit foodways, likely because of the Great Migration in the early 20th century.

She describes Detroit as a melting pot and it left her a lot of room to form her own culinary identity. She also spent quite a bit of time in Chicago, which further reinforced that connection and says the Midwest hospitality mirrors Southern hospitality in the ways that matter most: community, neighborliness, making sure people are fed and cared for.

“It just reminds me of the South,” she said. “People caring about each other and your neighbor, that is for both of those communities very much the same.”

“Friendly” competition

When asked about competing against her partner, Jasckson was direct, but answered honestly. She said they were supportive of each other, but once the challenges started, the familiarity with each other’s cooking became a challenge.

“It was a lot more emotional, like the back and forth of realizing, ‘oh, I’m actually competing against my partner,’” she said. “I don’t think I fully thought what competing against each other plus 13 other people would really mean until you’re in it. We’re like, ‘this is intense.’”

What she’s eating when no one is watching

Even professional chefs can be just like us. When she’s hungover, she loves to have tacos, always, whatever city she’s in. If she’s sick, it’s got to be chicken broth, specifically matzo ball soup. The matzo ball, she says, scratches the same itch as the chicken and dumplings she grew up on.

She’s also rather partial to muscadines or scuppernongs and says she hasn’t had them since her college days in Milledgeville. And, if they showed up in the Top Chef pantry, she not only tried to use them, but she had to snack on them. She admits, “I just couldn’t help myself.”

Jackson is still in the competition as of this week, and is among the strongest competitors. You can follow her run on Bravo or Peacock. Top Chef Season 23 airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m. ET on Bravo and streams the next day on Peacock.

You can listen to the whole interview here, or email me at srose@ledger-enquirer.com or find me on social media.

This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "This former GA chef could win ‘Top Chef’ show this season. Here’s what to know so far."