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Chef Jeff
Henderson.
Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to
Foie Gras. William Morrow. Hardcover, 288 pages
Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine
to Foie Gras
By Jeff Henderson
Book Review by Kam
Williams
| “My
father left when I was one or two years old.
It was just my mother, my sister, Cali Slim,
and me living in South Central. I only saw
my dad on holidays and the occasional
weekend . . . I always wanted to be around
my father, but I didn’t know him like I
wanted to.”Excerpted
from Chapter Two (pg. 13) |
No one familiar with the
unfortunate first act of Jeff Henderson’s life would be
surprised to learn that it had led to a long prison
term. Abandoned by his father as an infant, he was
raised in the projects of South Central L.A. by a
hard-working, single-mom who was too consumed by her
menial jobs to keep a close eye on her wayward son.
As a consequence, her boy
was shaped by negative influences from an early age, and
by 13 he was already a juvenile delinquent, stealing
from relatives, breaking into houses and stealing
bicycles. Kicked out of school less than a year later
for robbing a classmate, Jeff started hanging out on the
streets full-time, and not even his first arrest at 16
could deter him from a criminal path.
In fact, his felonious
behavior only escalated, especially after he became the
protégé of a flashy drug dealer. Adopting the alias
“Hard Head,” Jeff soon found himself seduced by all the
flamboyant trappings of the gangsta’ game: loose women,
expensive clothes and fast cars. Though he would also
become a father at 17 while still virtually a boy
himself, he was too busy narcissistically indulging his
decadent lifestyle to devote any attention to his young
son.
By 21, Jeff had relocated
to San Diego where he built his own crack business and
purchased a custom-built home, eight automobiles and
garish bling including gold necklaces and a Rolex.
Before his empire would collapse, Hard Head was
raking-in $35,000 a week and was indeed living large
during weekend excursions to Vegas and a welcome high
roller in Vegas.
Act Two of the Jeff
Henderson saga started the day he was fingered by a
member of his posse, busted by the feds, and had to
trade in his fine threads for an orange jumpsuit with a
number on the back. By the time he was convicted, he’d
lost everything, and was sentenced to 19 years behind
bars on California’s infamous Terminal Island.
He could have easily have
given up at this juncture by capitulating to the low
expectations of a coldhearted correctional system which
routinely crushes convicts’ spirits while swallowing up
their futures whole. But rather than resign himself to
diminished prospects, Jeff allowed himself to dream a
new dream.
Working his way up from
dishwasher to chef in the prison cafeteria, he found the
source of the passion which would give him a new lease
on life. Along the way, he came to learn every aspect of
cooking in a commercial kitchen, and prayed that he
would one day get a chance to run his own restaurant.
By the time he was
paroled after serving about half his sentence, Henderson
was ready to prove his worth, provided he could find
someone with enough compassion to give an ex-con a
second chance. Armed with innovative ideas about
blending the soul food from his youth with classic
Continental Cuisine, it wasn’t long before his sensual
creations like cornbread-encrusted lamb chops and
cognac-marinated watermelon cubes help him land the big
break that he craved.
The fairytale ending as
Chef Jeff is chronicled in
Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to
Foie Gras, as moving an overcoming-the-odds
memoir as you could ever hope to find. Today, Henderson
is the executive chef at the renowned Bellagio Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas, and he’s been named Chef of the
Year by the Tasting Institute of America.
Fortunate to have found
Stacy, a woman he could build a life around, Jeff is
also very happily married, and a devoted dad to their
three kids. He’s cut all ties to his gang-related roots,
except for giving back to at-risk youth by offering his
services regularly as an inspirational speaker.
Columbia Pictures has
already purchased the film rights to
Cooked
on behalf of Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment with
plans to turn the best-seller into an uplifting bio-pic
ala
The Pursuit of Happyness.
What a postscript for a remarkable role model who stands
as a living, breathing testament to the indomitability
of the human spirit.
posted 9 August 2007 |
