When Top Chef returns for Season 23 on March 9, Northern Virginia viewers won’t just have one hometown chef to root for — they’ll have two.
Identical twin brothers Jonathan and Brandon Dearden, born at Fairfax Hospital and raised in Sterling, are competing head-to-head in the Bravo culinary showdown. They’re quick to admit they’re no strangers to competition.
“We’ve been competitive from the womb,” Jonathan says. “I had to fight my way out. I’m 20 minutes younger because he kicked me up too far.”
That rivalry, however, has always come with loyalty. “It’s always like, yeah, I’m one up on you,” he says, “but I’ve got your back if you need it.”
Raised in the Kitchen
The accomplished chefs’ culinary journeys began in their grandmother’s kitchen in Sterling. “All of my childhood memories revolve around my grandma cooking for us,” Jonathan says. “She taught us how to make pancakes when we were six.”
Brandon agrees. “Everything she made was from scratch. Summers at the farmhouse — farm-fresh milk, homemade donuts, picking wild blueberries. Those are core memories.”
The boys’ grandmother introduced them to farmers markets and seasonal cooking long before it was trendy. “That was our first memory of really connecting to farms,” Jonathan says.
Ironically, neither initially planned to become chefs. “We got into cooking by watching Food Network,” Jonathan says. “Emeril Lagasse was our idol. I mean, we watched him every single day … that’s where our passion for cooking started.”
By age 15, they were working in kitchens in Alexandria, washing dishes and peeling cases of potatoes. That early foundation shaped them, but their professional paths would eventually diverge.
Different Kitchens, Same Passion
Their careers took different directions. Brandon pursued fine dining, training at Michelin-starred institutions like Alinea and Saison before opening Ember and Grano in Hamilton, Montana. His cooking is wood-fired-driven, rooted in local ingredients. Recently, he was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Mountains.
“One of my lifetime goals,” says Brandon, “is to make the restaurant business sustainable for young chefs and cooks coming up.”
Jonathan took a leadership route, climbing quickly to executive chef roles and now serving as corporate chef for KNEAD Hospitality + Design in Washington, D.C. “My dream was to manage people. I want to cook good food, but I also knew that I wanted to climb the ladder and be an executive chef,” Jonathan says.
Brother Versus Brother
Filming in Charlotte and Greenville, North Carolina lasted six to eight weeks — their longest stretch together as adults. “The best part was spending that amount of time together,” Jonathan says. “We haven’t spent that much time together in our whole adult life.”
But the pressure was intense. “You’re digging deep,” Brandon says. “It shows you what type of chef you are — raw talent. The clock doesn’t stop.”
And for Jonathan, the hardest part wasn’t the competition. “Being away from family,” he says. “No matter what kind of day I have, coming home and having dinner with my family is the best part of my day. That was tough.”
Brandon felt it, too. “Being a father is one of my favorite things in the world. Not having that connection was really hard.”
Still, they embraced the challenge. Each knew the other’s strengths and weaknesses. “There’s no secrets — we have literally no secrets,” Jonathan says. “If there was one chef I had to go up against, it’s him. We’re each other’s biggest competitors.”
One thing is certain: For two brothers who started in a Sterling kitchen eating pancakes and ambrosia, this is a full-circle moment. “I’m really looking forward to the airing because we had such a blast,” Brandon says. “It’s been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Feature image courtesy Jonathan and Brandon Dearden
