Internationally renowned Chef Jeff Henderson has taken the lemons that life has thrown his way and turned them into a multitude of lemon -flavored treats. As one who was once lost in the relentless grip of the streets, Henderson found the inner resolve to learn from his mistake and use them to accomplish his dreams.

Currently, Chef Jeff is juggling a myriad of projects that include a best-selling biography titled “Cooked,” a movie deal with Will Smith and a new reality series. The FrontPage had an opportunity to speak with the chef to get the inside scoop, to find out about the journey that has gotten him to this point.

FrontPage: Tell me about your book. How long has your book been out?

Chef Jeff: The book has been out for about 13 months. It came out in January, February of 2007. It’s a book about my life story; it’s about my journey to chef-dom. It’s about coming of age, my rights of passage and my whole life experience as far back as I can remember as a kid growing up in Los Angeles.

FP: OK. It’s really your story that’s so intriguing. A lot of people may or may not know about that background of your story, that growing up you were actually involved in drug dealing. Correct?

CJ: Yes, during the latter part of my teens. I’d always been in trouble when I was a kid so I’d always been high risk, at risk and getting kicked out of school, in trouble, mischievous and things of that nature. In the early ‘80s when crack cocaine really started getting Black communities across the country, I decided I’m going to take the easy way out to obtain my American dream. That’s what I did, basically; got busted and went to jail.

FP: What was that experience like? Because I think a lot of the images these young kids see on television now kind of glorify the whole experience of being incarcerated. Can you explain what that experience was like for you?

CJ: Well, it’s definitely not an experience people should glorify and I think a lot of people do glorify it on the outside. They have a misconception of what doing time really is. They think they’re going to go to jail, in prison they’re going to lift weights, they’re gonna get buff, and they’re gonna get some stripes. But at the end of the day, isolation sometimes has a different effect than it had on me, and it makes you harder and withdrawn and you become institutionalized. And you have that record which hinders you. When you’re young, you think one way than you do when you’re older. I try to instill in these youngsters that it’s not a journey that they want to take. You can get your positive stripes on the street, you don’t need to get these prison stripes. The only things those stripes are going to do is strike you out from getting jobs and creating opportunities for yourself when you get out of prison. Good opportunities can come. It happened for me but it was a unique situation. I worked hard and I was able to get through doors that a lot of guys have not been able to because I was really passionate about my goals after I got out of prison. But these kids don’t have a clue. They’re living a dream, but living a falsehood. They’ve been tricked and bamboozled by these guys getting out of prison and glorifying that whole lifestyle. So it’s definitely not a thing or situation that these kids should be admiring and wanting to follow behind.

FP: How were you able to change your mindset in order to get on the path to where you are now?

CJ: Well, you know, I tell most folks who ask me that question that it all began in prison. It began after I started valuing education, value reading, and I was able to begin to change my mindset. But it didn’t happen overnight. It was a bunch of situations and circumstances that I was in that triggered the change process. You know change is a journey; it was years and years of redeveloping myself to allow me to get to where I’m at today. I was able to get out of prison and build relationships with people who created opportunities for me and my whole thought process was totally different. And that came from education. Education allowed me to take these blinders off to see the world through a whole different set of eyes.

FP: How much importance do you lend to reading in and of itself?

CJ: Reading is very important. You should read every day. Have books in your bathroom, have them in your car, have them everywhere in your house. I read everything starting off with the newspaper. Reading is power; reading is knowledge. I always tell youngsters what separates the have’s and the have not’s and the ones who live in the suburbs from the inner city is information. And the only way you’re going to get information is to experience it and you have to read about it. Most successful people, they write books; the formulas, the strategies, the secrets of success are all documented.

FP: How were you able to break down the barriers that people may have built up against you due to the fact that you had been incarcerated?

CJ: I had to make a lot of changes. I had to master being a chameleon. I had to make adjustments in my persona. I had to take the swagger out of my walk. I clean-shaved my face, used makeup to cover my earring hole up. Reading had allowed me to improve my vocabulary as well and to speak more articulately and to understand the art of getting hired and the art of networking, the art of negotiation, the art of getting through doors and being able to communicate with non-African Americans. Which was something I had never done prior to going to prison. So there’s a skill set, lessons and rules one must learn and sacrifice to be able to get these opportunities. And that’s how it was for me. It wasn’t easy. Doors still got closed in my face and I was still rejected and was told that I wouldn’t and couldn’t get particular jobs in certain cities and proved them wrong.

FP: To fast forward a little bit, you’ve obviously done very well for yourself – from cooking and the Belagio Hotel, being on Oprah and things of that nature. How does that feel?

CJ: I’ve been extremely blessed and I always focus on staying humble and staying grounded. I’ve been extremely blessed, especially to go on Oprah’s show. I mean, there are people who’ve been trying to get on Oprah for 15 years. I was extremely excited when she asked me to come on and share my story. After I went on her show, God is just blessing me with movie deals, TV deals, and more book deals. Putting me in a position to influence the lives of at-risk kids and at- risk adults as well. So it’s not really about Chef Jeff; cooking has been a vehicle for me to inspire and impact the lives of other people.

FP: I also read that you are in negotiations with Will Smith to turn your book into a movie.

CJ: The negotiations are over and they brought the life rights. So it’s all in the mix. We’re formulating a script right now as I speak. So it’s definitely going to the big screen with Will starring as me. That was really exciting.

FP: What other projects do you have in the works?

CJ: I have a show coming out in the fall on the Food Network called The Chef Jeff Project, where I take six at risk young people and give them a second chance to work for my catering company. I also teach them life skills as well and we do parties.

For more information about Chef Jeff and his upcoming projects, visit www.chefjeffcooked.com.