I recommend the audio book, read by the author. It adds a dimension to the story that might be lost otherwise.

In Cooked, Jeff Henderson recounts his unlikely rise from a crack dealer in San Diego to a well-respected chef in a prestigious Las Vegas restaurant. His ambitions and inspiration came to him while serving a drug-related sentence in federal prison, and upon his release he put 100% of his efforts into educating himself, gaining experience, and convincing influential people in the restaurant business to take a chance on him.

Jeff’s gritty memoir was fascinating to me, someone to whom most of his life experiences are completely foreign, and I had a difficult time putting it down between sittings. One can’t help but admire his strength and resolve in making his dreams come true despite a past he wasn’t proud of.