Monica LaSalle, Nederland. “Can I get you anything?” she says as she gazes steadily at me with wide eyes the color of hazelnuts. We are sitting down in the Branding Iron, her second entrepreneurial enterprise and popular eatery in Nederland. Popular, because the food she serves is a conjuring of soul speak. And Heather always listens when her soul speaks.

Born in Mitchell, South Dakota (home of the famous Corn Palace), Heather Hatwan got her toughness from being raised in a military family. Her childhood consisted of protecting her siblings from abuse by their father; therefore, at 17 she joined the United States Army National Guard. An unfortunate accident caused a torn ACL in boot camp that was not acknowledged by her superiors and she was forced to hike 15 miles with a 50-pound pack with that injury. Needless to say, Heather knows how to push on through in tough times.

After she left the Army, she traveled around the country helping friends in need until her fortuitous meeting with a man in Texas who would eventually become the father of her beloved daughter, Xoli.

Thus began another journey, through hardships that would see her sleeping outdoors on the ground each night in Canada throughout nearly her entire pregnancy, fighting off abuse from a disturbed partner that caused her to flee with an infant to a shelter for battered women, losing her child temporarily due to a lack of Canadian citizenship and a government that disregarded domestic violence in preference to supporting one of their own.

Eventually, Heather and her estranged husband came to an agreement to move back to Texas separately but together with their daughter. She was able to find work doing tree cutting as she had in Canada, and she also worked in restaurants. Two years later, she and her daughter moved in with longtime friends in Nederland and she settled in for life.

She initially began cleaning the Sundance Lodge, but it wasn’t long before she would be cooking in the kitchen of the Sundance Restaurant. Serving up all the local favorites, she developed a reputation for exquisite dishes that also started coming out of the serving windows of other local establishments such as the Savory Café, The Tungsten, Lucille’s in Boulder and 1st Street sushi nights. Working at the Stage Stop under the old management, Heather was finally able to buy the business, with the help of her husband, and she made it her own.

At the time, the Stage Stop struggled with a reputation for inconsistent hours and low numbers of regular clientele. Heather worked hard to improve the experience with updated and improved menu items, regular events such as karaoke, live music, Queer Night, Service Industry Night and more. Heather has always been dedicated to helping out in the community, and would offer her space to hold local benefits, weddings, birthday parties and just about any type of party, really.

So, how in the world did she develop her flair for food? Simple; she was raised in a poor household that had to make everything count. One day a week, her mother would put all leftovers into one pot and called it “Stuff,” serving it to her family to make the last food scraps stretch.

Finding room for improvement with her mother’s methods, Heather found inspiration in the idea and would often dream of ways to improve it. Thus, a chef was born. She has applied this creativity in so many kitchens along the way, but she attributes her tough methods to one particular place.

While spending time in Florida, Heather worked in the kitchen of a restaurant owned by Sir Michael Kane called the South Beach Brasserie. There, she worked under a chef from Germany, a tough and driving boss who taught her to never trust people with her food in the kitchen. She tells me a story of working as one of several line cooks on a day when one of them cut the tip of their finger off doing prep work. When he reported it to their boss, he grabbed the man’s hand and pressed the bleeding end of his finger against a hot pan, cauterizing it. When he was through, he told the line cook to get back to work.

Heather admits that she is a bit gritty and rough around the edges. Her past struggles to not just survive, but thrive as a hard-working single mother with no help from her estranged husband or government programs, are no small testament to what has shaped her into the person she is today.

With a gleam in her eye, she says she is proud of who she is, and she knows there are people who judge her for it. She does not care, for she has had to fight a lot in her life. As a self-described “fly by the seat of her pants” kind of person, she has always made decisions quickly and taken action. When I ask her if she would call it “blind faith,” she says it’s not exactly faith. It’s more that she decides to do something and then she does it.

Her friends have been telling her for years that she should do her own cooking show, and this year she has finally consented to the potential of going on TV. With the help of local videographer Eric Abramson and local talent Rose Garland as well as her trusted staff and friends, Heather is putting together the application for Hell’s Kitchen. She looks forward to showing Gordon Ramsay, host of the fiery cooking competition in which the winner receives a head chef position, that he is not the only one with sass and talent.

Heather is not the type of person who seeks fame and fortune. On the contrary, Heather cares mostly about community and giving back. While she maintains a tough exterior, she has always worn her heart on her sleeve. She brushes her fingers along her favorite tattoo, that of an oak tree. “I might bend”, she says, “but I will never break.”

A weekly column about locals living along the Peak-to-Peak. To suggest someone for a profile please email The Mountain-Ear at mountainfolktales@gmail.com.

(Originally published in the April 11, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)