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What’s Cooking teaches cooking classes to children and helps families spend quality time together in the kitchen and around the table. We recognize that thousands of people across the nation are not fortunate enough to enjoy home-made food or family meals.  Our Recipe for Action series of articles features ways in which people are using food and cooking as a vehicle for helping others.  While some people are feeding the hungry, others, like Cheff Jeff, who is featured here, inspire others to use their passion for food to change lives and give people hope.  What about you?  Feel free to start simple – just call your kids into the kitchen to help you make dinner.  Who knows what might inspire them…

The Chef Jeff Projects follows Chef Jeff Henderson, a former prison inmate turned successful executive chef, as he attempts to transform the lives of six struggling young adults through the power of food.  Along the way, the crew is given necessary skills to remake themselves and succeed, including appearance, attitude, respect, motivation and behavior. From catering assignments with high-profile clients, the crew will get a new look at life and realize they have the tools to thrive despite the odds.

“Chef Jeff has an amazing story that will inspire not only the young adults in the show, but viewers across the country,” said Bob Tuschman, Senior Vice President, Programming and Production for Food Network.

Chef Jeff Henderson has become one of the most inspirational chefs in the country after finding his passion for cooking while incarcerated for drugs, and subsequently turning his life around. In 2001, Jeff made history in Las Vegas, when he became the first African-American named “Chef de Cuisine” at Caesar’s Palace. He eventually became an executive chef at several top restaurants including Café Bellagio, which he joined in 2004. Jeff’s remarkable story was captured in his New York Times bestseller COOKED, and is now being turned into a major motion picture by the team that made The Pursuit of Happyness. In October, 2008 he also launches his first cookbook, “CHEF JEFF COOKS: In the Kitchen with America’s Inspirational New Culinary Star” (Scribner). Jeff currently lives in Las Vegas with his wife and three children.