Mawa McQueen’s ‘Unstoppable Ambition’

Mawa Mcqueen isn’t slowing down any time soon.

The Aspen-based chef, entrepreneur, and author has had a remarkable couple of years. She opened Mawita in Snowmass Village, added a second location of The Crepe Shack in downtown Aspen, and landed on the MICHELIN Guide Recommended list.

She was also the subject of a French documentary which garnered her new attention in the country where she was raised after leaving her native Ivory Coast as a young girl.

“The documentary went viral in France, so everybody wanted to know who I was, especially as a black, African woman who has been successful in the United States. They wanted to know how I did it,” McQueen said. “It’s a lot of hard work, struggle, and not giving up.”

As a result of the media hype, Instagram attention, and interview requests, McQueen decided the best way to respond to everyone was to write and self-publish a book targeting the country’s youth, hoping to inspire them through her journey. She titled it, “Unstoppable Ambition: Volume 1: Cultivating a Mindset for Success.” It intertwines her personal story and what she’s learned about achieving success.

“I was also trying to understand myself and how I was different from other people. Was I divinely chosen? I don’t believe in luck,” she said. “I believe it’s when hard work meets opportunity that gets you there.”

The three messages in the book that are most important boil down to, no one is coming to help you, life is not fair, and you create your own life.

McQueen knows something about manifesting a life that seemed unattainable to most of the community she grew up in. Born in the West African country of Ivory Coast, and raised in Paris, she was the eldest child of 20. She learned to cook so she could feed her siblings. With poor grades and few other skills, she attended a reputable culinary school in Paris but learned upon graduation that fine dining establishments wouldn’t allow her to do much in the kitchen besides peel potatoes.

But, it was an episode of the American sitcom “The Young and the Restless” that gave her a glimpse of her future home when there was a scene of wealthy characters getting off a private plane in Aspen. She knew then that Aspen was a place she wanted to see.

Through a series of events which included stops in London and Maine, she made her way to work for The Little Nell in 2002. It took her over 20 years and a lot of hard work to establish herself in Aspen and build her ever-expanding empire.

“America is such a big part of my life,” she said. “You don’t think about those things, until you stop and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is home.'”

It was a lesson that the audience that showed up to her book tour events in Paris connected with.

“It was very nice for me to think about how I can empower a whole generation and summarize everything that I went through to be able to speak out, but positively, not in a negative way,” she said. “And then some people who attended were crying so that was a powerful experience.”

Back home in the Western Rockies, McQueen carries on, pushing ahead to bring more diversity to the local food scene.

This summer she is hosting a guest chef dinner series that kicks off on Friday at Mawita and Saturday at Mawa’s Kitchen and highlights Vietnamese food with New York-based Chef Helen Nguyen.

“Honestly, the guest chef dinner series came out of a level of frustration of not having a diversity of chefs that come here,” she said. “You have to understand I want to contribute to Aspen. We have a lot of high-end dining but it’s not accessible to everyone. So I wanted to bring in these well-known chefs that will bring diversity but also something extraordinary food-wise and have it available to locals.”

Other cuisines represented in the series are Nigerian with Chef Ope Amosu, Chef Tiana Gee cooking Filipino Soul Food, New Age Caribbean with Chef Shorne Benjamin, and Haitian Cuisine with Chef Vicky Colas.

McQueen said it’s no small feat to get the chefs here since it’s not a paid gig, but they participate because they want to cook in her restaurant for the people of Aspen.

“Luckily, I got support from East West who contributed big time to help me bring this vision to life because they sponsor the plane tickets for the traveling chefs and contribute funds to make the dinners more affordable,” she said. “I also have support from some local hotels and the city of Snowmass Village at Mawita. So it takes a village to have all these chefs come here to serve the local community.”

For information and reservations: mawaskitchen.com/themed-dinners-and-special-events, mawita.com/events

Sarah Girgis is the Publisher for The Aspen Times. She can be reached at 970-429-9151 or sgirgis@aspentimes.com.