It’s no wonder the Michelin Guide was drawn to Colorado. The state’s commitment to farm-to-table dining predates any trend, relying on the resources of the land and creativity of its chefs to produce seasonal, hyper-local cuisine. It’s why Colorado chefs celebrated a whopping six One Michelin Stars, four Green Stars, nine Bib Gourmand recognitions and 31 Selected restaurants since the state’s inaugural guide in 2023. Focused on the Front Range cities of Denver and Boulder — as well as the mountain towns of Aspen, Snowmass Village, Vail and Beaver Creek — the guide features just a sampling of the bounty that can be found across the state.
And the gastronomic options have only grown over the years. Chefs from around the world are venturing to Colorado to discover the cornucopia of crops and livestock that thrive here, so they can leave their mark on the blooming culinary scene.
Traditional Dishes With Modern Flair
In Denver, chef and restaurant owner Tommy Lee caught the Michelin Guide’s eye with his innovative take on regional Chinese cuisine, adding a modern flair to traditional dishes with seasonal, locally grown ingredients at his Bib Gourmand restaurant, Hop Alley.
“The direction of the menu is kind of ‘what’s a regional Chinese restaurant in Denver, Colorado, look like?’” Lee said. “Some dishes may not look Chinese at all, but they’re influenced by seasonal produce.”
Just northwest of Denver, among the picturesque backdrop of the foothills and rugged Flatiron mountains, Lee works closely with Esoterra Culinary Garden in Boulder to source organic produce grown on their 1.5-acre farm. Constantly adapting his menu to the ebbs and flows of each season’s growth, Lee always looks forward to late spring and early summer for harvests of salad greens, pea tendrils, ramps and morel mushrooms. As temperatures rise, Pueblo green chiles, Palisade peaches and Olathe sweet corn take the spotlight, but Lee’s favorites are Rocky Ford melons (especially the cantaloupe) and asparagus.
Hop Alley’s offerings are constantly changing with the seasons, modifying classic Chinese dishes with the availability of fresh produce and adding a modern flair. But building umami always takes precedence; incorporating monosodium glutamate (MSG), dried fish and vegetable products achieves savory flavor, while adding a punch of spice makes up a balanced portion of the menu.
The Beijing duck roll is probably the most iconic crowd-pleaser at Hop Alley, according to Lee, and has become a permanent staple on the menu. The dish takes on the familiar flavor of Peking duck, with Lee’s spin of smoking confit duck leg and rolling it up in a scallion pancake with cabbage and house hoisin sauce. The La Zi Ji — battered and fried chunks of chicken thigh tossed with dry Sichuan chili — is another must-try that brings the heat with its tongue-tingling spice.
Meanwhile, Hop Alley’s energetic atmosphere and imaginative drinks menu have earned the restaurant a reputation for boozy beverages alone, from baijiu (a Chinese liquor) acquired with the help of a family friend to inventive spins on classic cocktails, this drinks list is not to be overlooked. Case in point: The seasonal Bee’s Knees cocktail landed on the Michelin Guide inspector’s selection of top three cocktails in Colorado — it’s Hop Alley’s twist on the Prohibition-era classic featuring chili-crisp-infused honey.
“Helping create within the place you grew up, and having one minuscule say of what our restaurant and culture scene is, is pretty cool,” Lee said.
Born in Denver with Chinese roots, Lee notes that there wasn’t much in the way of Sichuan food in Denver when Hop Alley opened in 2015.
“I was a 27-year-old living in Denver and figuring out where we would dine out, but there weren’t many options that would appeal to me,” Lee said, remembering the culinary landscape as being mostly New American at the time.
Unbeknownst to him when signing the lease, Hop Alley’s connection to the area is “serendipitous” and steeped in Asian American history. The restaurant takes residence in an old soy-sauce factory owned by the family behind the Pacific Mercantile Market on the outskirts of what was once Denver’s Chinatown, founded in the 1860s, until a race riot in 1880 destroyed the neighborhood.
After discovering the history of the building and neighborhood, he decided to name the restaurant after the area’s moniker: Hop Alley.
“I think, ultimately, a lot of chefs are feeling the same way of wanting to create a place that they want to go to,” Lee said, naming the biggest change in Colorado’s culinary scene over the past few years as the rise of the minority restaurant owner’s voice through their food.
“They’re not afraid to keep things authentic,” Lee added. “They’re creating the cuisine that they grew up with and that they’re familiar with, and presenting it in a modern way that’s not necessarily compromising to American palates.”
“I think it’s cool that it’s become dynamic and diverse as far as people sticking to their guns of what they really want to do, which is always a hard business decision of ‘are people really going to like this?’”
Extraordinary Quality
For James Beard Best Chef: Mountain category semifinalist Mawa McQueen, cooking up her Afro-Mediterranean cuisine with French-American flair in Aspen and Snowmass was a risk that nearly drove her to give up her life’s passion. However, her flagship restaurant Mawa’s Kitchen earned its Michelin Guide Recommended distinction in 2023, lauded as delivering “extraordinary quality with everyday value.”
Her signature must-tries fuse her French and African roots, like chicken Mafee, a West African peanut curry with charred cauliflower and forbidden rice, or Jollof Fonio with roasted summer vegetables, spicy African red sauce and chili crunch. Meanwhile, Mawa’s seafood gumbo with andouille sausage, chicken, shrimp, crawfish, okra and foufou caught the attention of the Michelin Guide inspector’s palate with its use of bold spices.
“[Aspen is] basically the worst place to put a restaurant like this. It would be great in Denver, but I was in Aspen and I was sick and tired of steakhouses and sushi, and I thought we need more culture,” McQueen said. “I had to be true to myself. People finally embraced it and it became a success.”
The chef was inspired to come to the mountain town after seeing an episode of “The Young and The Restless.”
“When I saw Aspen, it looked like a Hallmark Channel movie,” McQueen said. “It was such a magical moment that it just stuck with me.”
At the time, she was just a kid living in France with the idea of pursuing the American dream. She vowed that she would one day come to America and visit Aspen as part of her bucket list. And years later, she found herself splitting her time between working summers in Maine and winters at The Little Nell in Aspen, falling in love with the warmth and magic of the small community. After years of back-and-forth, she finally decided to make the Hallmark mountain town her home.
“When I arrived in Aspen, it was even better than what I thought it was,” McQueen said.
She kickstarted her own catering service as a private chef, cooking modern American cuisine with a slight French flair for her clients by day, and going home to recreate the flavors of her upbringing by night. Growing up on the Ivory Coast in Africa and later living in a ghetto in Paris, her taste was heavily influenced by her Tunisian, Moroccan and Arabic neighbors, who shared their culture’s teas, couscous, honey cakes and tagines with McQueen and her 10 younger siblings.
“Our only currency when we were in the ghetto was food. We shared culture, we shared things,” McQueen said. “I didn’t know it was a gift and the more I remembered, the more I was craving that flavor.”
Inspired to be more true to her French and African roots, she began incorporating more Mediterranean food into her cooking while maintaining a hyper-seasonal menu with local ingredients.
Looking Ahead
Now, she has a growing empire on her hands. In addition to Mawa’s Kitchen, the Latin-inspired Mawita, two Crepe Shacks, her private-chef catering service and health-focused granola brand, GrainFreeNola, she’s expanding beyond the Rockies Playground. A Mawa’s Kitchen and two more Crepe Shacks are set to open in Denver this year.
Lee is also expanding with a third iteration of his ramen restaurant, Uncle, opening at Denver International Airport.
Looking back to when he opened his first restaurant 12 years ago, he’s recognizing that he may not be the “cool kid on the block” anymore as a new generation of chefs is rising in Colorado and he finds himself in a place of giving advice, rather than seeking it.
“It’s more exciting for me to see what the newer, younger chefs are trying,” Lee said. “They have less to lose because they’re just starting out, but it’s cool that they’re not sticking to the same formula that everyone in the past has.”
“In 10 years we’re going to be competing with New York,” McQueen added. “It’s amazing, if you go to Denver, there’s amazing, refined choices … I think people need to watch out, we’re coming and we’re coming with style.”
