Cooks Tour to Benefit Cancer Patients at UAMS

By Jon Parham

Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door and may be purchased starting March 16 in the Cancer Institute Auxiliary Gift Shop, open 9:15 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, or by calling (501) 686-8286.

The event will feature tours of the homes of Sherrie and Zsolt Sandor, M.D.; Pat and David Mego, M.D.; Debbie and Keith G. Bennett, M.D.; and Tam and David Ransom. In each home, chefs from some of Little Rock’s finest restaurants will prepare dishes for tour participants to sample.

The chefs for this year’s tour are: Evette Brady and Tim Morton of 1620 Restaurant; Mike Selig of Mike Selig’s Vermillion; Scott McGehee of Boulevard Bread Co., and John Beachboard of ZAZA Fine Salad and Wood Oven Pizza Co.; and Mark Abernathy of Loca Luna and Bene Vita.

The Cancer Institute Auxiliary’s Distinguished Honoree Award, given annually in conjunction with Cooks Tour, will be presented at the Patrons’ Cocktail Buffet at 6:30 p.m. April 17 at the Thomas Park Circle home of Angela and Edward O. Moody. The event will feature food prepared by Lee Richardson, executive chef of Ashley’s, and Chicago-style piano entertainment.

Glazer’s Distributors of Arkansas is donating beverages for the Patron’s Cocktail Buffet and wines to be served at the homes on the tour on Sunday.

Honored this year will be Anne-Marie Maddox, M.D., director of research in the UAMS Division of Hematology/Oncology. Tickets are $100 and include tickets to the April 19 tour of homes.

A native of Canada, Maddox is a widely recognized expert in hematology and oncology, with a special interest in the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma. She completed a fellowship in medical oncology at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston in the early 1980s, after which she accepted a faculty appointment at the University of Texas at Houston.

Maddox remained at the University of Texas faculty until arriving at UAMS in 1991 where she also serves as professor of medicine in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine.

Her career has been marked by teaching awards and selection to the Best Doctors in Arkansas list. She works closely with doctors pursuing fellowships in hematology/oncology and works closely with patients requiring chemotherapy for head and neck cancer.

Cooks Tour was founded with a two-fold purpose: to raise funds to support research, patient care and education at the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and to increase public awareness of cancer prevention. Monies raised by Cooks Tour 2009 will be used to fund projects benefiting cancer patients in Arkansas. Presenting sponsors are Chenal Properties Inc. and the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Foundation.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a new 540,000-square-foot hospital, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has 2,652 students and 733 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com.