It’ll surprise pretty much everyone to learn that in early 2022, Mawa McQueen was this close to shutting down her restaurants, Mawa’s Kitchen in Aspen and The Crepe Shack in Snowmass. McQueen, whose public persona is that of an effusive, confident, ever-smiling chef and owner, was questioning the viability of her chosen profession. “Restaurants are not for the faint of heart,” she says laughing. As McQueen writes in the intro of her newly debuted cookbook, Mawa’s Way, “From the outside, things seemed to be going well, but I was exhausted, working all the time, and just wondering if all this time, energy, and stress was worth it.”

And then, on February 23, 2022, McQueen received news that changed everything. She was at the grocery store when she learned she had been nominated for a James Beard award, the highest honor for a chef. “I cried my eyes out,” she recalls, “but the truth is I didn’t believe it. I thought they had made a mistake. It took me a while to realize it was real.” But the recognition, the validation that who she was and what she was doing was making a difference was just the fuel McQueen needed to keep the burners blazing.

And that she has. In the time since, McQueen has self-published the cookbook, grown her pandemic-spawned granola company, and opened a new restaurant, Mawita, in the Snowmass Base Village in December. The opportunity to expand came about “100 percent because of the nomination,” she explains. “People noticed and doors opened. Before that, I was a nobody.” 

At Mawa’s Kitchen, McQueen’s menu is largely rooted in French cuisine (she went to culinary school in Paris) but has more recently evolved to also include African and Middle Eastern dishes. “I cooked what I thought fancy, rich people would want,” she says. But with Mawita (which means Little Mawa in Spanish), McQueen is cooking what she wants. At its core, the restaurant is a celebration of Latin American and African flavors. If that seems like cultural dissonance, understand this: In researching recipes, McQueen realized that the cuisines of both cultures are based on many of the same ingredients, such as beans, plantains, and corn. In its first season, McQueen played it safe, leaning mostly on Latin-inspired dishes, but now, she says, “I’m just getting started.” 

Behind McQueen’s light-up-a-room smile and big laugh is a woman built on grit and fortitude. She was born on Africa’s Ivory Coast but moved to France when she was 13. Life wasn’t easy and McQueen was the caregiver for 10 siblings (she has 20 in total). That survival-first lifestyle didn’t leave a lot of room for dreams or even hope. “Since I was never taught to dream big,” she writes, “I was also never taught that it was OK to fail.”

And that was what she was struggling with prior to the James Beard nomination. McQueen sees herself as an entrepreneur first and a chef second, and for years she had been barely scraping by while moving forward, then backward—starting over when businesses stuttered or failed, even cleaning the building that houses Mawa’s Kitchen at night to offset the rent. The restaurant was plugging along, but it was a struggle to keep up with the bills, so McQueen felt more like a failure than a winner. “People can think you’re successful, but they don’t see your bank account,” she says.

In addition to bringing opportunities that had previously been out of reach, the Beard nomination also served as confirmation that McQueen had chosen the right place to plant her namesake restaurant. Although located a mere three miles from Aspen’s center, the Airport Business Center (ABC) ironically is about as far from the bustle of downtown as a hospitality business can get. That, combined with the industrial, office-park vibe, means she has had to work extra hard to get guests to her door.

McQueen (and a then-partner) had opened a private catering company in the space in 2006 because that’s what they could afford, and now she’s hell-bent on carving out similar opportunities for other budding restaurateurs. McQueen and her husband, Daniel, bought the building at the end of 2022 for two reasons: to ensure they’ll never get kicked out and to nurture a grassroots restaurant community in the ABC. “We want to create a real place for locals,” she says. And by that McQueen means paying it forward by offering restaurant space to those just getting started. 

Long story short: McQueen finally—most days, anyway—feels like she’s made it. And she’s living fully and maximizing opportunities. “Success is fulfillment,” she says. “And I am fulfilled.” 

Mawita
49 Wood Rd, Snowmass Village
970-592-8676; mawita.com