About

Hi, I’m Maria, chef and owner of Gourmet Maria – a fine dining establishment. I’m originally from Ghana, have lived in London, Chicago, and now the Pacific Northwest and I’m excited to share my culinary experience with you. 

My journey to becoming a chef was an unconventional one. Similar to most kids growing up in Ghana, my mother started teaching me how to cook very early on. However, I was not one for sitting still and so would find ways to escape at every turn. What I did realize, in eating the foods she made, was that my mother had a way of infusing Asian influences into our traditional diets, making her dishes unique and diverse. This stuck with me as I grew up. Fast-forward a few years, as an adolescent living with my Grandmother, I started to fall in love with cooking. What started as ‘chores’, quickly evolved into an escape. I looked forward to expressing myself through my cooking, finding new recipes, making changes to long-standing dishes and just watching with glee while my grandmother and aunties ate. My Grandma for one, loved my dishes so much that she blessed (or I earned the privilege) me with two of her secret family recipes. 

Every dish is carefully crafted and ready to wow your taste buds. I have grown to love and find it exciting trying out new recipes. I started my catering business in 2023, after carefully assessing what i wanted to do – what more than to follow my passion; cooking and leaving lasting impressions on every guest.