Mawa McQueen’s success as a chef, restaurateur and small business owner is not just about the community that she has established in Aspen, CO. It also stems from part of a much larger story that begins in West Africa.

Mawa McQueen was born and raised on the Ivory Coast of West Africa, where her early life had many challenges growing up in poverty and being the eldest of 20 siblings. However, Mawa was rich in the fact that she had big aspirations and a strong determination to achieve them. When Mawa was 13, she was moved to Paris with her family. During this time, she was responsible for feeding those that were closest to her — family meals that included breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all day every day. Being the head chef for the whole family, it did not take long for Mawa to realize that she possessed real talent in her craft. Mawa paved her path and began culinary school in Paris. Shortly after, she moved to London to learn English while working as an au pair.

Mawa always had a goal of coming to America and becoming a successful entrepreneur. In 2002, that dream came true when Mawa won a green card lottery. She arrived in Kennebunkport, ME working summer seasons at the White Barn Inn, also working winter seasons at the Little Nell in Aspen, CO. In 2004, Mawa started a catering company in Aspen and became famous for fresh, house-made, and locally sourced cuisine. In 2006, Mawa expanded her business and created Mawa’s Kitchen, a full-service restaurant focusing on Afro-Middle Eastern cuisine with French-American influences and catering company that also caters to private jets.

In 2022, Mawa’s talent and hard work was recognized nationally and internationally by the James Beard Foundation when she was nominated as a semifinalist for the James Beard Award Best Chef West. Then in 2023 Mawa’s Kitchen received the honor of becoming a MICHELIN Guide Recommended Restaurant in Colorado’s inaugural edition. Dedicated to inspiring everyone with her food and her story, Mawa launched her first cookbook, Mawa’s Way, which is not only a collection of fan favorite recipes from Mawa’s Kitchen in Aspen, CO, but also a story of grit and perseverance to achieve one’s dreams. Her life experiences on the Ivory Coast, Europe, and the United States were the foundation that ignited her passion for bringing food and comfort to people from all walks of life.

Today, Mawa is the proud owner of multiple restaurants in Aspen and Snowmass Village, CO, Mawa’s Kitchen, Mawita, and The Crepe Shack. Mawa’s Kitchen was her first restaurant, which was awarded the Colorado Governor’s Minority Business Award in 2020 and 2022, followed by the fast-casual, grab-and-go creperie concept The Crepe Shack in Snowmass Village in 2018. Mawa followed up her successful Crepe Shack concept in Snowmass with the opening of Mawita, an Afro-Latin restaurant, in Snowmass in 2022 and then expanded her Crepe Shack empire with a store in downtown Aspen in summer 2023. Along with her restaurants and highly successful catering business, Mawa McQueen is also the prominent owner of a granola company where she produces her own variation of granola. Mawa’s GrainFreeNola is a delicious gluten-free, protein-rich, and vegan granola. It is made with the highest quality organic nuts and seeds and sweetened with Medjool dates.

In addition to cultivating culinary destinations in Aspen and Snowmass, Mawa’s status as a celebrity chef continues to grow. She travels to culinary festivals and events around the United States and internationally, many of them with Food & Wine magazine and Food Network, sharing her recipes and cuisine with participants and attendees. Mawa has also been featured on numerous TV shows, including the TODAY Show, Envoye Special on France 2 and 66 Minutes on M6, and has been written about in Forbes and Le Parisien among many other major publications.

When Mawa is not cooking, running her multiple restaurants and granola business, she finds time to give back to her communities. She is an alumna of the James Beard Foundation Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program and currently serves on the Isaacson School Executive Advisory Board, the Colorado Restaurant Foundation board, the Ment’or Culinary Council and the Sylvia Center Culinary Council. She continues to advocate for Africa and its people and serves on the board for Brake The Cycle, which she helped raise over $20,000 to build a well to provide an entire village in Zambia with access to clean water, and is an Ambassador for Action in Africa, a nonprofit that promotes community development and increasing the accessibility, affordability and quality of education in Uganda for both kids and adults.