Chef Jeff Henderson is an award-winning chef, host of the Food Network’s The Chef Jeff Project, best-selling author, and popular public speaker — and an ex-offender, having served nearly a decade in prison for drugs. Having run kitchens as Executive Chef at the renowned Café Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, he has become one of the most inspirational African-American chefs in the country. As a passionate and powerful speaker, Henderson’s apperances are in high demand across the country, and he has spoken at Wendy’s national conference, El Pollo Loco, Nestle Food Service, Smithfield Foods, General Mills, and at corporations, non-profits, schools, and youth groups.
In 2001, Henderson made history in Las Vegas, when he became the first African-American named “Chef de Cuisine” at Caesar’s Palace. He eventually became an executive chef at several top restaurants including Café Bellagio, which he joined in 2004. Henderson has received widespread national attention on numerous TV and radio programs and print publications, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The Montel Williams Show, CNBC, NPR’s All Things Considered, People, and USA Today.
Henderson’s remarkable story of finding his passion for cooking while incarcerated and turning his life around was captured in his New York Times best-seller Cooked (William Morrow). His story is now being turned into a major motion picture by the team that made The Pursuit of Happyness: Will Smith and his production company Overbrook Entertainment, Escape Artists, and Columbia Pictures. He his host of the Food Network’s hottest new show The Chef Jeff Project, in which he takes six at-risk young adults and commits to turning their lives around by putting them to work in his catering company, Posh Urban Cuisine, and providing them the knowledge, the skills and, ultimately, the opportunity for a new life with a culinary career. He is also the author of Chef Jeff Cooks: In the Kitchen with America’s Inspirational New Culinary Star (Scribner).
A highly visible mentor and motivator, Henderson provides a voice of change, inspiration, and transformation for hardscrabble youth and adults. He has made it his mission to reach out to those who could benefit from his example. Henderson frequently speaks to youth and adult groups about how he overcame his own problems, extolling the virtues of hard work, determination, and passion. His belief in giving back to society has led him to contribute his skills as a chef at the 90th Anniversary NAACP Dinner Gala celebrating Brown vs. Board of Education, the 3rd Annual Travis Smiley Foundation’s “Salute To Youth Leadership” gala, and the 2003 Black Enterprise Magazine Cover Party honoring the top successful African Americans under 40.
Growing up in South Central Los Angeles and in San Diego, Henderson knew crime at an early age. Raised by a single mother, who worked as a welder to try to support her family, he needed money and the cash selling drugs offered was too tempting to resist. By age 19, he was running a million-dollar cocaine operation. Eventually arrested and incarcerated, he spent almost a decade in federal prison. During this time, he realized that being locked up had saved him and he discovered his passion for cooking while doing kitchen duty. He went from preparing crack to cuisine and in the process found a way to turn his life around. Once out of prison, he channeled the same intense ambition that had nearly ruined his life to help him rise to some of the best kitchens in the country.
Henderson currently lives in Las Vegas with his wife and three children.
Praise for Cooked:
“A really remarkable success story.”
—Oprah Winfrey, The Oprah Winfrey Show
“[An] incredible journey. . . a beautiful story”
—Good Morning America
“Quite a story. . . Henderson used his talent and his growing repertoire of recipes to rise through the ranks of the prison kitchen. After his release, he eventually made his way to some of the best restaurants on the West Coast.”
—NPR’s Morning Edition
“From hustler to high cuisine. . . . a gritty memoir.”
—People
“Henderson’s harrowing journey toward a life as a high-profile Las Vegas chef can be traced through some of the daily specials he concocted along the way.”
—USA Today
“A well-told redemptive story. One of the best reads in this genre . . . Henderson’s book details one brother’s determination to beat the odds and live his dream.”
—Essence
“[A] gripping memoir of [Henderson’s] drugs-to-dishes journey.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune
“Anthony Bourdain’s best-selling 2000 book, Kitchen Confidential, describes in graphic detail the culture of New York restaurant kitchens he has worked in. . . Jeff Henderson’s brand-new book offers the same kind of raw, behind-the-scenes look at life in commercial kitchens – both in top-end restaurants and federal prisons where he was inmate No. 16138198. But in Cooked, the Las Vegas chef tells a personal story of redemption rather than just socking us with reality.”
—Flint Journal
“Henderson tells his amazing story of redemption and extraordinary success in Cooked. Henderson tells an insightful story about drugs, determination, and dreams. His delivery is passionate, as if he is reliving each incident as he tells it. He exudes pride as he describes the major accomplishments in his life. . . Cooked is a wonderful read, and though its beginning is raw, its ending could be inspiring to young men struggling to find their way. It’s honest, moving, and sure to start you thinking about your goals in life.”
—Mobile Register
“This feel-good memoir recounts Henderson’s early days [on the streets] right up to his current life: proud father of two and executive chef at Cafe Bellagio in Las Vegas.”
—Vancouver Sun
“Pitch-perfect stories about the crazy inner workings of restaurant kitchens.”
—Gothamist