Good Cooking Story by Jacquelyn Hall Photos by David Moore
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tephanie Hadwin did not seek out candle-making and cooking as a career. Rather, it seems, candle-making and cooking sought her out. What started as a mission to find candles that she could use in her home without triggering her husband’s and son’s asthma, turned into a passion-filled career which is built on a lifelong love of creativity, cooking beautiful and delicious food, and sharing her generous heart through everything she makes. Living in New Jersey in 2016, Stephanie realized that some of her and her husband Damon’s favorite candles were triggering his asthma. Through some tedious trial and error, she and Damon found that soy-based candles were the culprit. So, after much research, Stephanie started pouring her own custom blended candles. Shortly after she began, a friend asked to do a fundraiser with her to raise money to dig a well in Honduras. One well and 175 candles later, Stephanie found her footing and decided to open Hadwin House from their basement. After nurturing their budding business there for two years, they opened their first store in 2018. In March 2020, with the business growing, they had no sooner gone through a mountain of paperwork and moved into a bigger store, when life abruptly pulled the Hadwins in an entirely different direction. They decided to move to Guntersville to help her mother-in-law. “We say all the time, ‘If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans,’ and boy did He laugh!” Stephanie says.
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n a November whirlwind in the midst of a pandemic, they not only moved their family – which includes children Noah and Reagan – and life into a rental house in Guntersville, but two weeks later they reopened Hadwin House on Gunter Avenue. And three months after that move, they purchased their home in Guntersville. “Everything felt crazy,” Stephanie says. “But I thought, ‘Hold on tight to the palm
‘Beautifully full and abundant’ plates are Stephanie’s way to communicate her love of God’s hand.’ And we got through it all – even better than we could have imagined.”
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lossoming from her long love of
have benefited the Hadwin home for years. Cooking and feeding people are favorite ways to communicate her love. She wants the plates she serves to family, friends and
New Jersey transplant Stephanie Hadwin rewards herself with an iced coffee after cooking a family feast at home in her kitchen. the food arts, Stephanie has added a bistro to her repertoire at Hadwin House. “It’s all like spaghetti,” she laughs of the new effort. “Throw it up against the wall and see what sticks.” In running her bistro, Stephanie leans on lessons learned over the years through different restaurant jobs she’s had. One of her first was as a country club hostess and server, but she always made a point to watch the chefs in the kitchen, picking up every detail and skill she could, from how to hold a knife to artful plating. “Presentation is everything,” Stephanie says. “We eat with our eyes first.” She expects those lessons and her love of cooking to help her build the bistro side of Hadwin House, but those same factors
strangers alike to always be “beautifully full and abundant” and say to people, “I love you this much.” Using fresh and locally sourced ingredients whenever possible is a priority for her. Those extra steps in preparation add to the experience of enjoying one of her meals and communicating her love to the diner.
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tephanie’s favorite quick and easy meal is shrimp with bow-tie pasta. “You can whip it together in 30 minutes, and it’s always a hit,” she says. A hit for the chef with its expeditious preparation, and a hit with the diner for its wonderful flavors. Of her more involved recipes, her
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