Are onions Mike Tyson's kryptonite? Market Bar-B-Que knows

Mike Tyson reportedly really doesn't like onions.

When the former heavyweight champ was in the metro to host WWE's "Raw," a member of his camp called Market Bar-B-Que to make an announcement: Somebody famous is coming to eat.

"We're like, 'OK, whatever,'" said Anthony Polski, company prez-in-waiting. "We were going to have a private room for them. Then his boys came in." The advance team disclosed that Tyson was on his way and that he didn't want any onions near his food. "None. No onions. No pork," Anthony said. "Chicken. That's apparently what makes him iron."

Tyson then showed up. "We set up this huge table for him," Anthony said. "Then he decided no, no go." Anthony's father, MBBQ owner Steve Polski, said, "He must have smelled onions."

The Tyson party members decided that instead of eating in, they would take out. As Tyson was paying for the chicken, he reiterated in that incongruous high-pitched voice so often parodied: No onions. No onions on anything. They can't have touched anything. If onions touched anything ... If there are any onions in this order, I'll bring it back.

Had Evander Holyfield known of this aversion, an ear might have been spared.

Anthony said he told Tyson: "Don't worry about it. There are no onions." While recalling the celebrity encounter for me, Anthony added, "It's too bad, though. We have really good onion rings."

The voice mail I left Tyson's rep also suggested that if Iron Mike wanted to expand his wingspan, from a culinary perspective, he might try sauteed onions or onions marinaded in apple cider vinegar. (My boys at Coastal Seafood hipped me to Cuisine Perel's terrific blood orange vinegar, which deliciously takes the digestive sting and scent out of all Alliums.)

Of course, if Tyson's distaste for onions is publishing-based, that's perfectly understandable. The Onion loves to take swipes at him.

The Situation The Situation is scheduled to fist-pump his way to Minneapolis on Saturday for a series of parties at downtown hot spot Bootleggers.

This will take Mike (The Situation) Sorrentino, a breakout MTV star from "Jersey Shore," to a location near the snow-covered shores of Lake Calhoun.

"Almost 1,000 people are already planning on coming," Deepak Nath, of Bootleggers and Envy night clubs, told me Thursday. "We don't know how many are going to show up. We do know that at one of his last appearances, the club's capacity was 400 -- over 2,500 showed up."

Does The Situation allow just anyone to touch those abs? "That's up to you," Nath said, laughing. "I'm not asking."

And Nath wasn't telling, either, when asked how much an appearance by The Situation costs a club.

H&G gossip & pizza There was good gossip and pizza on the All Inc. kitchen stage Thursday at the Home & Garden Show.

I made my Ultimate Ham & Cheese Pizza, from whole wheat dough (although, I didn't make the fontina, provolone or fresh mozzarella cheeses).

"You make pizza like you were a little old Italian lady in another life," WCCO-TV anchor Frank Vascellaro has said. The recipe has been posted at Allinc.com. Click on the Home & Garden Show.