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He calls himself a "tough-love chef." And he should know the meaning of "tough."
After growing up on the streets of South Central Los Angeles and San Diego, Jeff Henderson was running a drug-dealing empire at age 19. At age 24, he was sentenced to prison.
In a way, it was the best thing that could have happened to him.
It was behind bars that the young inmate discovered a passion: cooking, a skill he forged in the prison kitchen. It was a lesson learned that took him to a world a million miles away upon his release, to the kitchens of the best restaurants of Beverly Hills and Las Vegas. He's written two books and is working on a third. He recently wrapped up the first season of his own television show. His life is going to be chronicled in a movie by a Hollywood superstar. He has met the distinguished poet Maya Angelou. And, yes, Henderson has sat down with Oprah Winfrey.
"You know what happens when you go on 'Oprah'?" Henderson, 44, asked rhetorically with a laugh during a recent phone interview from his Las Vegas home.
Chef Henderson will bring his story to Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology as keynote speaker Monday, Jan. 19, when the Crispus Attucks Community Center hosts its 21st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. His message is a simple but powerful one.
"A dream," he said, "is rooted in one's purpose."
Henderson's dream was a very different one as a teenager in the 1980s. His role models, he said in a 2007 episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which re-aired New Year's Eve, weren't doctors or lawyers or college-educated people but drug dealers who enjoyed life in the fast lane.
His first arrest was at 15, for theft. Henderson then moved into dealing marijuana and crack cocaine. By the time he was 21, he was making $35,000 a week. He was a star — for all the wrong reasons. That came to a crashing halt in 1988, when the 24-year-old Henderson was arrested and sent to prison.
It was there that he read his first book. And it was also there he discovered a calling, thanks to being put on pot-and-pan cleaning duty in the kitchen, as punishment.
He befriended two inmates, one simply known as "Big Roy" and the other named Friendly Womack. They taught him the basics of crafting cuisine, fare such as "fried chicken, lasagna, chop suey," Henderson said by phone. Fellow inmates took notice. A talent was born.
He got out of prison in 1996. "It was like a time warp — you go in, in 1988, and out in 1996. It was like a science-fiction movie," Henderson said.
At that time, he was just another ex-con, and Henderson knew the label — young African-American male with a criminal record. But he had a goal: "overcoming that whole image stigma" Henderson said. "I had to catch up."
He also had a name in mind, chef Robert Gadsby, whom Henderson had read about in prison, in an article about black chefs. It was Gadsby who gave Henderson a break, in a kitchen in Beverly Hills. Before long, Henderson was helming kitchens in Las Vegas, where, in 2001, he made history when he was appointed the first African-American chef du cuisine at the legendary Caesar's Palace.
"They gave me a shot and I proved myself," Henderson said. His credentials grew to include stints at Las Vegas' Hard Rock and Bellagio hotels. He married his wife, Stacy, the niece of Friendly Womack; they live in Las Vegas and are the parents of three children. Henderson is also father to a grown son.
Henderson is not running a kitchen these days. But he has plenty to keep him busy. He authored "Chef Jeff Cooks: In the Kitchen With America's Inspirational New Culinary Star" in 2008 and, in 2007, an autobiography that sums up his life in its title: "Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras." He's currently working on a third book.
Television has allowed him to share his story with young people facing the same risks Henderson did. In "The Chef Jeff Project," which aired last fall on the Food Network, Henderson mentored six would-be chefs from South Central Los Angeles, who ranged in age from 18 to 23. Henderson called the show "tough love — I was the preacher, the father, the police. I wore many hats." Tough it was, but the show wasn't a Gordon Ramsay-style affair with a screaming celebrity chef picking off contestants one by one. "Nobody was eliminated," Henderson said. He's hoping the Food Network will pick up a second season.
And Hollywood has called: Will Smith wants to produce and star in Henderson's story. "You can't get no bigger than that!" Henderson laughed of the superstar actor's interest. Henderson was also honored to do a radio show with Maya Angelou, whom Henderson calls "the queen of souls."
At home, Henderson keeps things easy in the kitchen. "Most chefs like to eat simple when they're not working," he said. "There's nothing like a good cheeseburger!"
He advises potential chefs to know that "truly, truly ... this is what you want to get into," he said of the cooking business. "You're married to this industry."
And he has a message for society at large: Don't let failure get in the way.
"Our fear of failure is greater than our desire to succeed," Henderson cautioned. "I had to start over, individually."
Tickets to the Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast at the college, 750 E. King St., are $60 per person. Ron Martin, of WGAL-TV Channel 8, will host. Call the Crispus Attucks Community Center, 394-6604, ext. 120.
Stephen Kopfinger is a Sunday News staff writer. Contact him at skopfinger@lnpnews.com or at 291-8799.
