Former Gilchrist cooks Jackson, Tootla compete on Bravo TV’s “Top Chef”

Jennifer Jackson and Justin Tootla on Gilchrist Farm after harvesting ramps. Photo by Carter Leach.

By Jacob Wheeler

Sun editor

Leland resident and former Gilchrist Farm Winery chef Jennifer Lee Jackson found herself once again in the racetrack pit during the opening episode of “Top Chef”—just as when she cooked burgers and fried chicken sandwiches as a teenager at the racetrack her father operated in rural Georgia.

But this time she honed her craft in front of hundreds of thousands who watched her on television. Jackson and her partner, Detroit native Justin Tootla, are competing in Season 23 of the popular Bravo show, which premiers on television on Monday, March 9, at 9 pm (some watched the opening episode last week on Peacock or YouTube). The 75-minute show typically runs 14-16 weeks. “Top Chef: Carolinas” was filmed between August and October 2025 in locations around Charlotte, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina.

Described as “life partners,” Jackson and Tootla are among 15 contestants, who notably also include twin brothers Brandon and Jonathan Dearden. The winner of “Top Chef” earns $250,000, a feature in Food & Wine, an appearance at the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, and a chance to cook at the historic James Beard House in New York City.

Competing on the show “was so much harder than we thought it would be,” Tootla told the Glen Arbor Sun in February. “We’ve been huge fans of the show and have watched it since Season 1. For 20 years we’ve played ‘Monday morning quarterback,’ judging contestants as much as they were judged on the show.

“But when you’re in the mix, when the clock starts and you’re cooking, it’s intense! Being in other people’s kitchens, you have to adapt on the fly.”

“Top Chef” has attracted fans for two decades with its spotlight on culinary competition and its diverse array of up-and-coming cooks. At least one chef is typically eliminated from the show during each episode, creating a high-stakes drama. Contestants have taken advantage of the exposure to open restaurants, write cookbooks and emerge as culinary leaders.

While the show’s producers keep its content secret before it airs, the Greenville News reported that Season 23 “includes visits to the region’s mountains, lakes, and rivers, as well as activities such as ziplining, white-water rafting, and a visit to a farm that grows some of the world’s hottest peppers”—dubbed the Carolina Reaper.

During the Quickfire Challenge under a broiling sun and 90-degree temperatures at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the opening episode, chefs were split into teams of three and told they could cook anything—but only in the time it takes a racecar to complete 23 laps around the track, typically about 11.5 minutes.

“As the cars whip around the speedway, the chefs sprint between cutting boards and burners, trying to stay steady while plating only in the final laps,” writes Food & Wine Magazine.

Jackson was part of the winning Blue team that made a crab and shrimp hushpuppy with harissa aioli and a napa cabbage and peach salad, earning each of them a cash prize of $5,000.

Both she and Tootla survived the elimination challenge, which featured guests using sweet potatoes, North Carolina’s official state vegetable. Fellow contestant Day Anaïs Joseph was eliminated on week 1, reportedly because both her fish and sweet potatoes were undercooked and her herbes de provence overpowered the dish.

Prior to “Top Chef,” Jackson got to know the Carolinas during road trips her family would take when she was young. However, she admitted to feeling nervous about the added pressure of “cooking straight-up southern food,” which she hadn’t done since those days in the pit of her dad’s racetrack.

Breathing up north

Jackson and Tootla served as consulting chefs at Gilchrist from August 2024 until December 2025. Connoisseurs flocked to the Suttons Bay restaurant for their locally sourced dishes, including the popular chicken schnitzel topped with a Caesar salad—sourced with chicken from Anavery Farm, romaine lettuce from Loma or Lakeview and aged raclette from Leelanau Cheese.

According to co-owner Elizabeth Huntoon, the duo was known for their creativity. “They did a great job of utilizing our Gilchrist market garden produce as well as other local sources,” she said.

Prior to landing in northern Michigan, Jackson and Tootla worked at acclaimed restaurants including Voyager in Ferndale and launched Bunny Bunny in Detroit’s Eastern Market. They met at the Culinary Institute of America and have worked for major restaurants in New York.

Tootla had visited Charlevoix as a child and worked as camp counselor in Kalkaska. “Being up north was part of my life before I could walk,” he said.

After graduating from culinary school, he moved into an old family cottage in Beulah and worked at Mission Table on Traverse City’s Old Mission Peninsula. Tootla convinced Jackson to take a layover on her way to Alaska.

“I took her around. She saw the Great Lakes for the first time, and she fell in love with it.”

Jackson admitted that she cried the first time she saw Lake Michigan.

“I felt like it was home for me,” she said. “Every time we go downstate now, I feel like I can breathe again when we come back up north.”

Jackson and Tootla received a phone call from Gilchrist after holding a Bunny Bunny pop-up event at The Little Fleet in Traverse City in November 2022. They closed Bunny Bunny in June 2024 and relocated to Suttons Bay later that summer.

“We loved what Gilchrist was doing with their farm-to-table ethos, their regenerative farm and growing and processing their own grapes for the restaurant,” said Tootla.

Establishing relationships with local farmers became part of their learning curve.

“When we worked in bigger cities, vendors would show up at our door, or it was pretty easy to pick up a phone,” said Tootla. “But it’s the opposite up north. We’d call up a farmer who either sold meat or vegetables. They were insistent that they wanted to meet us in person at the farm before they’d let us use their products.

“We spent most of our first week driving around the [region] meeting farmers.”

Jackson and Tootla adjusted to the ebb and flow of the seasons and reacted to meet customers’ requests.

“All the chefs and restaurants up here work with the same produce and finding ways to be creative under seasonal constraints,” said Tootla. Diners at Gilchrist “wanted a burger on the menu, so we had fun sourcing it top to bottom with ingredients from the County.

“Once June hit, [the sizes of the dining crowds] were insane.”

Friendships on the show

Jackson and Tootla bonded with other contestants on “Top Chef” and may plan a dinner event somewhere in the South within the next year—potentially Houston.]

“While it is a competition and someone has to win, we checked in with the other chefs on a daily basis,” said Tootla. “The text thread between us was constant.”

That bond surprised Jackson.

“The friendships we made on the show was definitely a highlight,” she said. “We didn’t expect that to happen.”

No plans have solidified yet for their next food venture up north, but ideas are flowing. They may hold an event around the Summer Solstice at Parcel, a seven-acre plot with two Scandinavian-inspired cabins near Little Traverse Lake.

The chefs are regulars at Farm Club and enjoy the classic “supper clubby, throw-back restaurants” such as Fischer’s Happy Hour Tavern and the Manitou Restaurant in Benzie County. They also love martinis at the V.I. Grill in Suttons Bay.

Above all, Jackson and Tootla are happy to call Leland home.