Known as Chef Jeff, Hendersonâ€â€born in southern California’s Watts and raised by a single motherâ€â€says he earned as much as $35,000 a week dealing cocaine in San Diego. He wound up in prison in 1988: “People say I got arrested. No, I got rescued,” he says. At the time, he likes to say, the only thing he had ever cooked was crack. But while incarcerated in six different prisons for eight years and nine months, he worked in prison kitchens. First, he cleaned pots and pans. Then he prepared meals, bartering food for services like haircuts. His signature dish in prison: fried chicken, served every Sunday. Today it’s a pan-roasted Chilean bass with fingerling potatoesâ€â€a $26 entree at the Cafe Bellagio, where he is executive chef. (more…)
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