Mawa McQueen
Owner/Executive Chef
Dynamic and beloved Chef Mawa McQueen is the passionate owner and executive chef of multiple restaurants across Colorado; Mawa’s Kitchen and Mawita in Aspen and Crepe Therapy Café in Aspen, Snowmass Village and Boulder. Her life experiences growing up in Côte d'Ivoire and in France were the foundation that ignited her passion for bringing food and comfort to people from all walks of life.
She has been recognized for both her skills as a chef and entrepreneur and awarded the Colorado Governor’s Minority Business Award in 2020 and 2022. 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 again when Mawa’s Kitchen received the honor of becoming a MICHELIN Guide recommended restaurant in 2023, 2024, and 2025 (2023 was Colorado’s inaugural MICHELIN Guide).
Dedicated to inspiring everyone through her food and story, Mawa launched her cookbook, Mawa’s Way, which is not only a collection of fan favorite recipes from Mawa’s Kitchen but also a story of grit and perseverance to achieve one’s dreams. In 2024, she wrote and published her first motivational book, Unstoppable Ambition, in both French and English to share more of her fascinating story and the transformative power of perseverance, ambition, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. She followed this with a practical guide readers could work through called Unstoppable Workbook: Mapping Out Your Mindset For Success, published in 2025. Along with her restaurants and highly successful catering business, Mawa 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 made with the highest quality organic nuts and seeds and sweetened with Medjool dates.
More than just an executive chef and savvy entrepreneur, Chef Mawa’s impact goes beyond the kitchen as she makes time to give back to her communities. In April 2025, the national nonprofit Spoons Across America recognized Mawa with its Award for Excellence for her work to empower others through food education, mentorship and her work to uplift underprivileged communities all while celebrating diverse cuisines. She is an alumna of the James Beard Foundation Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program and Colorado Restaurant Foundation and currently serves on the Isaacson School Executive Advisory Board, Ment’or Culinary Council, and Sylvia Center Culinary Council. She continues to advocate for Africa and its people and serves on the board for Brake The Cycle, for which she helped raise over $20,000 to build a well to provide an entire village in Zambia with access to clean water. Chef Mawa is also 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.