Cooking cocaine is similar to cooking foie gras-both are expensive ingredients and require careful attention. Left unattended, cocaine will go up in smoke; foie grass dissipates into a puddle of fat.

So begins Jeff Henderson’s remarkable journey of transformation, from convicted drug dealer and prison inmate to award-winning chef. Reminiscent of Finding Fish and Kitchen Confidential, but with an engrossing tone of its own, Cooked crackles with the energy of the street, the sober reality of prison, and the visceral thrill of being inside the intense kitchens of some of the country’s great restaurants.