Anne Marie & Thomas Rosek

Anne Marie & Thomas Rozek,
President and CEO of Miami Children’s Hospital

President and CEO of Miami Children’s Hospital Thomas Rozek and
wife Anne Marie share their passions for cooking, wine, family, and
the community.

What wine-related experience comes to mind when you think
of summertime?
A picnic with friends at Niagara on the Lake in Southern Ontario, listening to a concert, enjoying a couple of chilled bottles of Sauvignon DOC – Villa Russiz.

Describe your most memorable gastronomic experience.
A Niebaum-Coppola Royal Black Tie Winemaker Dinner at the Cellar Club in 2003, with a seven-course meal prepared by Chef de Cuisine Philippe Ruiz of Palme d’Or. Our guest (Professor of OB-GYN and previous Dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine) described this as one of the most exceptional gastronomic experiences of all of his worldly travels.

What activities do you enjoy in your down time?
If we are not in Miami Beach on a Sunday morning reading a couple of newspapers, you can find one of us playing golf and the other watching or listening to a conservative news program. We both enjoy dancing, reading and sharing time with family that now includes our first grandchild, Jonathan, our four children, our daughter-in-law, and our families of Italian and Polish heritage.

How do you use the Cellar Club in your day-to-day lives?
We were invited to join Ben Mollere at a Cellar Club event when we first arrived in the community, and had such a grand time meeting new friends and tasting quality wines and foods, served by such a professional staff, that we decided to join. The atmosphere is not only wonderful for informal business meetings with the great staff physicians of the Miami Children’s Hospital, but the location is also excellent for evenings out with friends from all over the world who visit our ‘City Beautiful’.

Talk about your involvement in the Biltmore International Food & Wine Weekend.
Since arriving in South Florida six years ago, we have had the opportunity to participate in and support three Biltmore International Festivals and Wine Weekends. The recent focus of these events, in support of the UM Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, reinforced the value of not only a great weekend filled with great wines, food, and friends, but also the need for community leaders to support the clinical enterprise and research endeavors, for the prevention of cancer and the care of adult patients in our community.

Describe your “perfect” meal.
The one and only perfect meal for Tom is one that has been homemade by Anne Marie—a tradition in our family. It includes a glass of Prosecco, a Caprese Salad, homemade pasta (preferably ravioli with a tomato sauce bracioli), accompanied by a simple red wine such as a 2001 Montefalco, Rosso. And for dessert, a Moscato di Terracina followed by café and a biscotti. If you could share a bottle of wine with any person in history, who would that be? Anne Marie’s father, Enrico Papi. The small community of Medina, NY, where he settled from Abruzzo, Italy, considered his home made wine to be the finest in town!