What Happened to Chef Jennifer on Top Chef

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After 23 seasons, you’d think that just about anything that could possibly happen during a season of Top Chef already has. And yet, Top Chef: Carolinas (official title) has the rare distinction of devoting more screen time to an old rope swing injury than possibly any reality competition show ever (with all due respect to Destination: Rope Swing on Tubi+).

If you’ll remember, Georgia native Jennifer Lee Jackson (competing on the show alongside her life partner, Justin Tootla) revealed early on that she had injured herself a few weeks before after falling off a ropeswing — supposedly on a dare from her nephew. SPOILERS FOR EPISODE SEVEN TO FOLLOW, DON’T KEEP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Chef Jennifer’s shoulder was bothering her to the point that she missed multiple quickfire challenges while getting treatment, but was otherwise fairly competitive in the elimination challenges. That situation continued through episode seven this past week, during which Jennifer won high marks (though not the outright victory) for her Atlantic Beach Pie.

Then, while the judges were announcing the winners and losers, Chef Jennifer’s face began visibly drooping. Concerned about her health (and probably their own liability issues), host Kristen Kish, while waiting for the ride to the hospital, told Chef Jennifer that she wouldn’t be allowed to continue competing this season, with the understanding that they would hold a spot for her on a future season.

They offered Jennifer’s spot this season to her partner, Justin (who had just been eliminated), but he wanted to make sure his CLW (common law wife) was okay first. That meant he didn’t take her spot, though he did show up on that week’s episode of Last Chance Kitchen — supposedly after a two-day time lapse, per the show’s title card He went on to lose LCK to Rhoda. My speculation at the time was that Jennifer’s spot, after being turned down by Justin, went to Sieger Bayer, who was the previous chef eliminated, two episodes ago. It seems like the only explanation for why Sieger hasn’t shown up on Last Chance Kitchen (which Tom Colicchio promised to explain two weeks ago, but ended up not explaining this past week).

With me so far? Phew.

Anyway, so we knew that Chef Jennifer’s face was drooping, and then on Last Chance Kitchen, we heard her tell Chef Justin that it wasn’t a stroke, and that she was okay. My speculation was that it was Bell’s Palsy. Bell’s is believed to be caused by a virus that causes inflammation around the cranial nerve that controls one side of the face, choking it off. I know a little about it because I had an attack of the Bell’s a few years ago.

Well, not to brag or anything, but it sounds like I was correct. A few days ago, BunnyBunny, Chef Jennifer’s restaurant in Detroit, posted the following update:

“Thanks for all the well wishes since the last episode. We wanted to follow up with a quick update. Jenn indeed suffered from a sudden onset of Bell’s Palsy while filming. As pictured above, she is on the mend and doing great.” [Instagram, with thanks to reader Grant and Reddit]

Again, it was easy to recognize a Bell’s attack, having been there myself. I think I was even the exact same age as Jennifer is now when I got mine. Here’s a picture of me from a few days after it started, right about at peak numbness, looking like a sweaty Harvey Dent: