• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Event Calendar
    • Submit Event
  • About Us
    • Our Contributors
    • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Arts & Entertainment
    • Comedy
    • On Screen Dayton
    • On Screen Dayton Reviews
    • Road Trippin’
      • Cincinnati
      • Columbus
      • Indianapolis
    • Spectator Sports
    • Street-Level Art
    • Visual Arts
  • Dayton Dining
    • DMM’s Brunch Guide
    • Restaurants with Private Dining Rooms
    • Dayton Food Trucks
    • Quest
    • Ten Questions
  • Dayton Music
    • Music Calendar
  • On Stage Dayton
    • On Stage Dayton Reviews
  • Active Living
    • Canoeing/Kayaking
    • Cycling
    • Hiking/Backpacking
    • Runners
  • How to Support Dayton Businesses, Nonprofits During COVID-19

Dayton Most Metro

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

10 ? With Chef Maria from Nibbles

June 22, 2016 By Lisa Grigsby

sxou03rnqvukicxc_400After 20 years as a dental hygienist, Maria Walusis decided it was time for a career change.  So she began to apprentice with accomplished chefs from L’Auberge and  Cumin in Cincinnati, restaurants that have since closed.  She launched her catering business about 6 years ago and then in Jan of 2015 she opened the intimate  800 square feet fine dining eatery Nibbles at 105 S. Second Street, which is the former Hamilton Hotel building in historic downtown Miamisburg.  Seating just over 30 guests inside, patio seating doubles the occupancy when weather permits.

Chef Maria shares that she customizes her menus “each season so you can have a unique food experience and not the same old thing you see all the time.”  With the start of summer, she introduces her 11th menu starting with a shrimp roll, fried green tomatoes and lobster hush puppies.  Entrees include her amazing chile relleno, jerk chicken or a tomahawk pork chop. See the full menu here.

 

Chef Maria agreed to take a break from cooking long enough to answer our 10 ?’s interview:

 

Vodka-cured Salmon with Soy Cubes, Yuzu Gelee

Vodka-cured Salmon with Soy Cubes, Yuzu Gelee

What is your favorite ingredient to cook with?    Hard to pick just one!  I love all seafood and there is always a variety of seafood items on our menus!  The current menu has lobster hush puppies!  I am already craving some.

What ingredient do you dread?
Artichokes are a pain in the butt.  They are prickly, and quickly turn a yucky shade of gray. I love to eat them but hesitate to work with them.

What’s your favorite dish to make?
I have a thing for braised meat of any kind. It’s some comforting and homey and smell amazing when cooking and just falls apart with a fork.

What’s your favorite pig out food?
Definitely pizza!  Pizza is amazing and when you want something late at night it’s the way to go!

What restaurant, other than your own do you like to dine at in the Miami Valley? There are so many great places and great chefs here in Dayton!  I like to support all the chefs as much as I can. Favs are Rue Dumaine, Meadowlark, Wheat Penny and Salar!  Very excited about some of the new places coming to Dayton soon like Basils!

Brown Sugar Shortcake with Rhubarb and Candied Ginger

Brown Sugar Shortcake with Rhubarb and Candied Ginger

What’s your best advice for home chefs?  Cook! Cook! Cook!   Read cookbooks and study and just cook. Try  new things and have fun creating.

If you could invite any 4 guests to a dinner party who would they be and why?
I would invite all the local chefs who could get away from their restaurants!  We all work so hard and its difficult to actually get together for any sort of social time, so to be able to get us all together and cook some great food and kick back together would be awesome, and spoil them a little bit with some great food.

Who do you look up to in the industry and why?
I have had some mentors who have encouraged me along the way to becoming a chef and are a source of support, and answers to my sometimes silly questions.  Chef Anne from RueDumaine has taught me a lot along with Chef Michael from Michael Anthony’s at the Inn in Versailles.  Two amazing chefs with different styles and strengths who have both influenced my cooking and how I run my restaurant.Nibblesoutside

What do you do in the Miami Valley on a day off?  Well, since I haven’t had a “day off” in weeks I’m not sure!   We go out to dinner/drinks when we can to enjoy someone else cooking for us!  WE enjoy spending time with family and friends, our daughters and parents.

Share a kitchen disaster, lucky break or an interesting story:
I was running a private party for another chef as a favor, a private party in a home. As I was trying to get the filet cooked to temp it was taking forever and I finally realized the oven wasn’t working. I opened the door to the pro-viking range and the entire door literally fell off the oven into my arms! I was completely horrified and had to figure out how to finish cooking steaks for 60 guests with no oven!!

Filed Under: Ten Questions, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Chef Maria, Maria Walusis, Nibbles

About Lisa Grigsby

Lisa Grigsby is a Special Events Director with over thirty years experience in promotions, event coordination and public relations.

Owning Jokers Comedy Cafe for 20 years taught Lisa to maintain a sense of humor under pressure. She credits Leadership Dayton for exposing her to the amazing assets of the region and Clothes That Work for being her reason she stayed in Dayton. Her proudest accomplishment as a past president of the Miami Valley Restaurant Association was creating Restaurant Week, a twice a year tradition that continues to grow and benefit local charities as well. As a foodie, it's only natural that she continues to promote local restaurateurs with DaytonDining.

As a Dayton Catalyst, her desire to have ONE community calendar and advocate for the amazing assets of the region helped create the vision for the relaunch of DaytonMostMetro.


Comments

Comments

Primary Sidebar

Featured Events

  • Thu
    04
  • Fri
    05
  • Sat
    06
  • Sun
    07
  • Mon
    08
  • Tue
    09
  • Wed
    10

10 TON Irish Cream Stout Launch

4:00 pm | Warped Wing Brewing Company

Virtual Grand Opening For The Hub at Dayton Arcade

5:30 pm | Virtual Event

Acoustic Music with Thomas Hayes Freel

6:30 pm | Mr Boro’s Tavern

JCC Virtual Women’s Seder

6:30 pm | Virtual Event

Cory Breth Live Music in the Loft

8:00 pm | Moeller Brew Barn

Miamisburg Baseball Fundraiser

11:00 am | City Barbeque- Centerville

Carry Out Fish Fry

11:00 am | St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church

Xenia Food Truck Rally

4:00 pm | Xenia Station

Knights of Columbus Council 3754 Fish Dinner

5:00 pm | Marian Manor Hall

First Friday St. Paddy’s Day Beer Crawl

5:00 pm | Downtown Tipp City

Spring BLOOMS – First Friday

5:00 pm | 1880 Candle Co.

Antioch Shrine Center Fish Fry

6:00 pm | Antioch Shrine Center

Irish Club Fish Fry

6:00 pm | The Irish Club of Dayton

Karaoke!

6:30 pm | Yellow Cab Tavern

Two for the Road Live

7:00 pm | Mr Boro’s Tavern

Prime Time’s Wedding Open House

9:00 am | Prime Time Party Rental

Growing Green: Local Food & Economics

10:00 am | online event

Girl Scout Cookie and Wine Pairing Walk

12:00 pm | The Windamere

Mardi Gras Gumbo Dinner

5:00 pm | South Park American Legion Post 675

Amplified!

8:00 pm | The Phone Booth Lounge

The Menus

8:30 pm | JD Legends Entertainment Complex

Pancake Box Brunch

9:00 am | Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm

Prime Time’s Wedding Open House

11:00 am | Prime Time Party Rental

The Art of Suspense

2:00 pm | Virtual Event

Cult Movie Night: CAROUSHELL

7:30 pm | The Neon

Free Boot Camp Workout

5:30 am | The Park at Austin Landing Miamisburg OH

25% Off Pizza Monday

11:30 am | Oregon Express

$2 burger night

5:00 pm | Bullwinkle’s Top Hat Bistro

Grand Opening

7:00 am | Nutmeg Cafe

Grand Opening

11:00 am | Thai Table

Trivia Tuesday

7:00 pm | The Brick Tap & Tavern

9to5: The Story of a Movement – Virtual Event with the Filmmakers

7:00 pm | Virtual Event

ALL YOU CAN EAT!

5:00 pm | Bullwinkle’s Top Hat Bistro

Trivia w/ DagaTrivia

6:00 pm | Eudora Brewing Company

Trivia Night

6:30 pm | Troll Pub at the Wheelhouse

More Events…

DMM E-Newsletter


Give us your email address and we'll send you our DMM E-Newsletters
Email:  
For Email Marketing you can trust
Back to Top

Copyright © 2021 Dayton Most Metro · Terms & Conditions · Log in