Dr. Mias Pretorius, assistant professor of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt
Chef Mario Batali, host of Food Network’s “Molto Mario” and “Mario Eats Italy,” will be the honored guest at the T.J. Martell Foundation’s fourth annual Best Cellars Dinner at the Loews Vanderbilt Plaza on March 10.
The event raises more than $100,000 for the foundation, which locally supports the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
The event will pair a local wine collector with a recording artist as hosts of tables. Artists scheduled to attend this year include Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Aaron Tippin, Deana Carter, Charlie Daniels, Amy Grant, Sara Evans, Clay Walker and others.
Batali is known for his award-winning restaurants and most recently received the James Beard Award for Best New York Chef in 2002. He is the author of “Holiday Food,” “Simple Italian Food,” and the “Babbo Cookbook.”
The dinner will be hosted by Billy Ray Hearn, chair of EMI CMG; Bill Hearn, EMI CMG president and CEO and chair of the Nashville Martell Foundation board; and Joe Galante, chair of the RCA Label Group and president of the Nashville Martell Foundation board.
The Martell Foundation, which supports leading research into innovative therapies for leukemia, cancer and AIDS, was founded in 1975 by music industry executive Tony Martell and his colleagues after his son, T.J., died of leukemia. The foundation has raised more than $170 million to fund research at nine facilities in the United States, including the Preston Labs, which were founded in 1993.
For more information about the dinner, call 256-2002.