Celebrity chef Jeff Henderson serves up inspiration at NSU

NORFOLK

Celebrity chef Jeff Henderson served up a stew of inspirational stories to a lunchtime crowd at Norfolk State University Tuesday.

Henderson is an award-winning former executive chef at Cafe Bellagio in Las Vegas, a best-selling author and has his own show, “The Chef Jeff Project,” on the Food Network.

He’s also a convicted drug dealer who spent nearly a decade behind bars, picking up a life-saving love of food in the prison kitchen.

“I’m just a homeboy who changed his life,” he said.

Henderson’s TV show focuses on young people from underprivileged backgrounds and offers a culinary school scholarship to those who make it through the boot camp-like training.

Henderson told the Norfolk State crowd that when the Food Network approached him about developing a show, he knew what he didn’t want - to see himself demonstrating how to chop veggies and hawking spices or cookware.

“I wanted to do a show that changes lives,” he said.

Henderson, an imposing figure in chef’s whites, jeans and sneakers with a shaved head and fashionable eyeglasses, stalked the stage relentlessly during his more than hour-long talk.

He pointed out his sister, who lives in Chesapeake, and cousin in the audience.

“Growing up we didn’t have the double-door refrigerator with all kinds of choices for breakfast,” he said. “We had oatmeal.”

Growing up poor in South Central Los Angeles without a father at home led him to selling drugs, he said, although he never got high himself.

“I was addicted to the lifestyle,” he said.

Prison authorities punished him for a work infraction by putting him in the kitchen, he said. That sparked a love of cooking and a new career after his release.

Despite his record, Henderson worked his way from washing dishes to executive chef, picking up several cooking awards and distinctions along the way.

He has since appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and hung out with actor Will Smith, who is preparing a movie based on Henderson’s life.

“I finally got the double-door refrigerator and the house on the hill with the white picket fence, but this time I did it the right way,” he said.