{"id":848,"date":"2013-03-19T14:37:18","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T18:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=848"},"modified":"2013-03-26T12:33:06","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T16:33:06","slug":"meet-your-iron-chefs-mike-dysart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/meet-your-iron-chefs-mike-dysart\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet your Iron Chefs: Mike Dysart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maunders'<\/a>

Maunders’ Mike Dysart is one of five local chefs facing off in Iron Chef Aurora.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Brock Weir<\/p>\n

As a young guy growing up with dreams of being a chef, Mike Dysart took inspiration from TV chef Jamie Oliver, a young guy himself.<\/p>\n

Watching Oliver work his magic with a well equipped kitchen and some pretty common ingredients, Mr. Dysart says he thought Oliver was doing some \u201camazing things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what I wanted to do,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery time I saw his show and read one of his books, I found he was really creative and that is how I wanted to go about my career.”<\/p>\n

And succeed he has. Mr. Dysart, now a chef at Maunder\u2019s Food Shop, is one of five local chefs spending these last few weeks leading up to Thursday, April 18 strategizing and coming up with a game plan before facing off the others in \u201cKitchen Stadium\u201d for the very first Iron Chef Aurora. <\/p>\n

Slated to be held at the Aurora Community Centre, Iron Chef Aurora is the brainchild of Habachat\u2019s Debbie McGrath and Tim Newnham to not only showcase local restaurants and chefs in a fun way, but also raise much needed funds for local charities. Joining Mr. Dysart, who will be raising money for Kerry\u2019s Place Autism Services, will be Oakland Hall\u2019s David Charyk working with the Alzheimer\u2019s Society of York Region, Thay Siharath of Orchid Thai with Yellow Brick House, Rib Lizotte of Edward Street Bistro with the Haddan Eby Endowment Fund, and Aw Shucks\u2019 Grant Robertson with Rose of Sharon.
\n\u201cI think it is great,\u201d said Mr. Dysart of the pairing. \u201cAurora is a great town, so anything that can help different charities is something I would love to do in any way I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sentiment is shared by Tim Maunder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was about doing something for the community and we are engaging charities that are in Aurora,\u201d he says. \u201cThe other part was sort of putting on display businesses in Aurora. They have been doing Ribfest in Aurora, but none of the businesses relate to Aurora. I just thought it was a good chance to give something back and engage everybody in the neighbourhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mr. Dysart and Mr. Maunder, Iron Chef and the Taste of Aurora Festival, which will follow in the Aurora Community Centre through the weekend, will be to showcase what our local restaurants have to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really hope I showcases the businesses of all five of us,\u201d said Mr. Maunder. \u201cWe are more varied than what they see on the roadside driving by. They assume Maunder\u2019s is just a butcher shop or some other guys are just restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adds Mr. Dysart: \u201cCome see what the chefs north of Toronto have to offer!\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he can\u2019t give too much away, what Mr. Dysart will have to offer is a few different ways of cooking lamb, using two secret ingredient that will be shared by all Iron Chef challengers, and trying to be as creative as they can with it. Sharing his favourite things to cook, however, does nothing to narrow down the possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love curries and I love different types of spices and things like that,\u201d he said, noting he often makes his own spice blends. \u201cI also like the classic, family-style cooking like roasts and that kind of stuff, so it is all over the place. It is not just one specific genre, but I like to try new things. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the audience thinks [what I cook on April 18] looks good, is presentable, and that it is creative. Maybe it is something they wouldn\u2019t have thought of, or something they have never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the first in a series getting insight from Aurora\u2019s Iron Chefs. For more information on either Iron Chef Aurora, or Taste of Aurora, visit www.habachat.com\/ironchef.<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir As a young guy growing up with dreams of being a chef, Mike Dysart took inspiration from TV chef Jamie Oliver, a young guy himself. Watching Oliver work his magic with a well equipped kitchen and some pretty common ingredients, Mr. Dysart says he thought Oliver was doing some \u201camazing things.\u201d \u201cThat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-dG","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 17:05:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}