Cooked: My Journey from the Streets to the Stove

Powerful, unassuming, motivating eye opener. Recommended to my children and friends. Rating for easy reading and relatability. The passion is inspiring.

Wow!! Is all I can say. I'm so glad I came across this book. It was from my dad (who is also a Chef) As a city girl from the urban environment - I understood Chef Jeff in so many ways. Especially since growing up with brothers, friends, & family who did or is doing jail time. I love how raw and detailed this book was. I literally did not want to put it down but I took a few breaks so I would not read through it so fast. Chef Jeff just make you see how ANYTHING is possible no matter the road blocks YOU CAN DO IT!!! & He proved that. It also just shows how majority of everyone from the urban environment including myself do not have it easy. We have it a lot harder. We see violence often, we sometimes are on empty stomachs, we do not have the best role models all the time, etc. The list can go on and on. BUT, that does not define our FUTURE. Thank you sooooo much Chef Jeff for inspiring me and everyone else. I'm so happy and proud of all your accomplishments. You deserve it all!!!!! Best of luck with everything!!!!

Chef Jeff Henderson takes you on an emotional yet inspirational ride his journey to culinary success. This book is about setting goals, looking within, and pushing through when the stakes are not set in your favor.

The book is a good account of Chef Jeff's life on the street and ability to overcome the challenges of becoming a repeat offender when he got out of prison. Be aware that much of the book takes place on the street so there is a lot of street language.

It’s clear to me now what Jeff Henderson’s problem was, and it had nothing to do with drugs. His problem was that his father was a lousy role mode, always preaching that his clients were stupid and he had the right to steal from them. Young Jeff learned that hard work was for suckers and real men helped themselves to whatever they wanted. The boy’s mother was a welder, and while you’d think that’s a real macho job, you’re right. Problem was that in Jeff’s neighborhood, people were derided for doing real work. Worse, the men on her job site treated her like s***. They didn’t want a woman doing a man’s job. Jeff’s mother was the better role model, but thanks to sexist attitudes, his hustling father won. Jeff ended up losing.Cooked is not so much a book about a chef as it is about proving yourself in work. He goes to jail barely out of his teens, never had a real job, but he learns to cook in a restaurant kitchen. Fresh out of jail, he finds that his father has pilfered the money he’d given him for safekeeping and his “tough black guy” attitude won’t work in a kitchen. The Mexican cooks, heavily represented in the culinary business, aren’t about to take it from him. You can feel their hostility from the get go. But the Mexican cooks are only in it as a job to make money. Jeff Henderson intends to turn it into a career, so as you guessed, he quickly moves on to another restaurant.Cooking in restaurants is probably a great job for kids who can’t sit still. Unfortunately the training has to be paid for and few public schools have a really good culinary program. Henderson got his for free, but unfortunately he had to be in jail first. Marcus Samuelson got his free of charge, because in Sweden there are great trade schools. Here in the USA, the trade high school got killed by political correctness. Tell a kid he should forego college to become a chef, and his parents will scream bloody murder.Something tells me that if Jeff Henderson had pursued a career in cooking while still in high school, he would never have gotten into drug dealing.

Jeff Henderson's story of going from a crack dealer to a prisoner to a top-rated chef is a truly inspiring story. Amazing. I am giving this story a 5 just for Jeff's ability and willingness to overcome - But more than that, it offers insight into the problems that plague African American society, culture, and families, particularly the lack of parental love, parenting skills, and commitment to their families. It is inspiring to see how Jeff Henderson educated himself through reading and taking classes to improve himself, to eventually become a social activist, public speaker, talented chef, and a devoted husband and father who is doing his best to overcome the negative patterns he saw in his own home as a child.

I first heard about Jeff Henderson from his television show The Chef Jeff Project in which Henderson, who spent 10 years in jail for drug trafficking, mentors troubled young adults in the area of fine cooking with the hope of steering them in the right direction and hooking them up for jobs.My expectations for the book were not high, as I feared this celebrity chef had simply "told his story" to a ghost writer who did a quick job to make a book for money.My presumption couldn't have been farther from the truth. As I later found out, Henderson began conceiving of the book, and writing it himself, decades ago in prison, haunted by the guilt that selling drugs to people on the streets was not a victimless crime but one of such devastation that he someday wanted to redeem himself and atone for his wrongs by imparting a powerful story of his self-reinvention and ultimate redemption.His writing voice is powerful and authentic as he explains his rise as a drug dealer, his struggles in prison, and his excruciating post-prison growing pains as he uses all of his might to transform himself into a world-class chef (which he does), develop his personality into a leader, a mentor, and a statesman, disavowing his past criminal ways, and his dedication to his family and community.This book is free of cant and sanctimonious self-aggrandizement. Henderson tells the story straight with no affectations. He uses his real voice, street vernacular and all. For me, hearing his story was even more powerful because I listened to the audio version, which Henderson reads himself. His voice has all the power such a compelling tale of transformation deserves. Highly recommended.

Arrived in a timely manner and the book was in good condition.

The item was described as exactly what it was.. It was absolutely perfect and it was delivered very quickly.

Well all this to demonstrate that a man cannot satisfy himself with this deceptive, dishonest demeanour at his peril.Love God, work hard , have real life principles and appreciate life with what you have.