Food

How Mawa’s Kitchen is making its mark on Aspen’s restaurant scene

Chef and restaurateur Mawa McQueen braved many ups and downs on the way to building several successful businesses in the upscale resort town.

Mawa McQueen grew up in an immigrant family in France and was educated at a leading culinary school in Paris, but was only offered dishwasher jobs once she graduated. She made her way to England to work as a nanny so she could learn English and realize her dream of coming to America—a country she saw portrayed on TV as a place where Black people could excel.

Mawa McQueen
Mawa McQueen

She started in front of house jobs in the U.S., then became a personal chef, caterer and restaurant owner, experiencing business failures along the way. “I didn’t give up,” McQueen says, and now, she operates several businesses, including a high-end granola company she began during the pandemic. Listen as McQueen shares her story and her plans for the future.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe on Spotify

We are now on Alexa. Log into your Amazon account, look for “Menu Feed podcast” to enable the skill. Once it’s enabled all you need to do to listen is say, “Alexa, play ‘Menu Feed.’” You may also enable the daily short news podcast “RB Daily” by searching for the RB Daily podcast.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Innovation is great, until it isn't

The Bottom Line: Starbucks pushed through products recently while skipping its traditional testing processes, even as the coffee shop giant was working to improve operations. Those ideas are contradictory.

Financing

Fast-food chains get some big wins, despite a tough consumer environment

The Bottom Line: Wendy’s Krabby Patty Kollab generated strong sales for the chain. McDonald’s got traction with its Chicken Big Mac. Both proved that good marketing can win, even these days.

Financing

Corporate greed cooked BurgerFi, franchisees say

The once-promising better-burger chain has a new owner out of bankruptcy, but franchisees wonder whether damage done under prior leaders leaves any hope for a new beginning.

Trending

More from our partners