By David Palmer

‘Chef Jeff’ Henderson is a former crack cocaine dealer who became a millionaire selling drugs on the streets of Los Angeles at age 19 and went to prison on a drug charge at 24 for 11 years.

Today, Henderson, 45, is an award-winning chef, television personality (the Chef Jeff Project on the Food Channel in 2008), motivational speaker, and, with two books in circulation, a best selling author. He tells his fascinating story of redemption in “Cooked. My Journey from the Streets to the Stove.”  Henderson, built like a linebacker from his exertions in the prison yard and doing pots and pans in the galley, learned how to cook in prison, and when he got out he worked as a chef with an impressive line-up of restaurants, including Café Bellagio in Las Vegas.

By Steve Straessle

We’ve been wanting to write you this note.  We’ve been wringing our hands, looking to the stars, staring at ceilings, and shifting our feet to find the right words.  You deserve this note.  You deserve to know what the dads of this world have been thinking about as Father’s Day approaches.

You see, we think about you a lot.  We can remember when we first learned that your mother was pregnant and how our jubilation was quickly tempered with the awesome weight of responsibility.  We watched as your mother’s body swelled with the new life beating inside of it, and it made us determined to be good fathers and better husbands.