Branding Chef Jeff

Jeff Henderson?s love affair with food and cooking began in a most unlikely setting: a federal prison. At 24, Henderson was sentenced to 10 years for selling crack cocaine. Soon, he was trading his culinary creations (chicken-and-cinnamon rolls, for example) with other inmates for shirts and whatever else he needed. Today, Chef Jeff, as the 45-year-old South Central Los Angeles native is popularly known, owns a catering company and can be seen on television?s Food Network. He?s also an author and mentor to at-risk youth.

Henderson specializes in California French and Northern Italian cuisine. ?You are not going to be a top chef by simply cooking soul food or ethnic food,? Henderson counsels aspiring chefs. ?You need to go out of your zone, learn the history ofI knew in the streets as hustling,? Henderson told The Network Journal during a recent book-tour stop in New York City. ?I basically changed the product from cocaine to me and my ability to cook. I educated myself through books and hard work and studied the people who were doing what I wanted to do.?

His Food Network show, The Chef Jeff Project, portrays Henderson with at-risk youths from South Central Los Angeles whom he hires to work for his catering company. He provides these youth with the tools not only to begin a career in the food industry, but also to be successful in life in general.

Henderson perfected his own skills in many small restaurants in California and in Las Vegas, where he became the first African-American executive