Chef Jeff Henderson — Cooking Oneself To Redemption
Posted By: 'Okie' | 12:00 pm — 11/28/2008 | 
2 Comments See comments below:
Since yesterday was a major cooking day for most of you all, but not us this year, I thought I’d start out today with a post on Chef Jeff — Jeff Henderson that is. He is the former crack-cocaine dealer turned famous chef and his life of crime and redemption via learning to cook in a federal prison kitchen is told in his bestselling memoir, “Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras”. If you watch Food Network on cable or satellite, you might have caught the recent reality series The Chef Jeff Project, where he took six at-risk kids off the streets and put them to work in his Los Angeles catering company, Posh Urban Cuisine. Via this experience each of the six was given the opportunity to learn basic cooking skills and basic life skills as well as the chance to earn a culinary scholarship from The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes.
A quick primer on Chef Jeff would be this interview at Beliefnet, where he discusses his path to redemption.
At the time when I talked about “Jesus, I Know You’re Gonna Make A Way For Me,” my life was in the hands of a juror. And when I was found guilty and sent to prison, I became bitter and had disbelief in God.
Over a period of time, I come to the realization that this was part of God’s plan to get me at the point I’m in my life today, and it became a blessing in disguise. But it took trial-and-error and growth and development personally to be able to understand why I was put in that situation because, even when I was on the streets, I was a non-violent person. I cared about people. I had a heart. I had a certain level of consciousness. And, you know, I had to go to prison to find myself, to be able to teach and do the things that I do today.
I am a believer in God, and I am a Christian. And it’s by the grace of God that I’ve made it this far, to live to be 44 years old. I truly believe that my success is directly tied to God’s work, which is rescuing, motivating, inspiring, and uplifting people of all races and from all different communities.
If you can, catch the episodes of The Chef Jeff Project as they will be constantly rerun by FN. The wife and I really enjoyed watching him work with the kids and were amazed by his patience and caring.
Over the next few weeks I’m gonna work on some dishes out of his just released cook book: Chef Jeff Cooks. We never seem to be able to make it to Roscoe’s — so I’m thinkin’ chicken & waffles.
Oh, ya betcha!
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29 November 2008 | Traditional Korean Sesame Cookies (in Korean) Said:
[...] ‘Okie’ on the Lam » Blog Archive » Chef Jeff Henderson — Cooking … [...]
28 December 2009 | alonzo williams.sr Said:
Dear. Chef Jeff. I had the opportunity to catch your show Dec.28TH and I must say that I was so impress of what you are doing with at risk youth. I am a youth counselor for the last 25 years, and what you are instilling in them are the same principals that I have been doing. Teaching them to take advantage of the second or third chances that they get in life. All of what you went through and what they have gone through and still struggle with is a God sent. I do hope that someday we will have the opportunity to meet and to share your experiences with our youth. May GOD Bless you and Heaven smile upon you. YOUR FRIEND Alonzo Williams. sr.