For 22 years, Ascension St. Vincent’s has been bringing together some of the best chefs in the local area with its Delicious Destinations event, which is a combination celebration and fundraiser.
Every year, the Ascension Foundation strives to do something a little different and the 22nd annual Delicious Destinations, which benefits its community outreach programs, will surely go down as a memorable one as this year’s luncheon was capped off by a surgical robot helping prepare the featured dessert.
The luncheon on Sept. 6 featured chef Colin McClimans, who owns a pair of restaurants in Washington D.C., Nina May’s and Opal, the latter of which received a Michelin Guide mention.
McClimans operated the robot with guidance from Dr. Martin Martino, who is a gynecologic oncologist at Ascension St. Vincent’s in Jacksonville and specializes in minimally invasive and robotic-assisted surgery.
Together, they prepared a vanilla and Chablis poached pear on top of almond cake with Sabayon sauce and rosemary.
It was a site to see for many in attendance and it provided much of the crowd an up-close glimpse of a surgical robot at work.
“We have an obligation to care for our community and we have a lot of work still to do,” Martino said. “We have to do this together, and it really starts with teamwork, and I’m so thankful to have a successful team on this journey together.”
Not only does the team include Martino and his fellow doctors and nurses who make up the Ascension St. Vincent’s staff, but it also includes the residents in the community that are willing to offer up donations to help the organization’s goals and continue to advance the healthcare opportunities in Northeast Florida.
“This is the team approach we’re using to build our cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, prostate and neurology surgery, and colon surgery,” Martino said. “As we recruit surgeons here, they’re here to take care of us (as a community), because we all are going to need care at some point, and we want it to be the most advanced care.”
Martino expanded on how robotic surgery has changed over the years since he first saw the technology being introduced in 2001 and how it continues to advance toward the way of the future, including performing surgery remotely, which he believes is coming sooner than later.
“It really changed our careers and what we do, because we realized we could see in 3-D, which gives us added depth and our hands get seven degrees of freedom, which means we can go in places of the human body that we never thought we’d be able to reach,” Martino said. “Patients will thank God go home the same day in many cases and get back home to their families where they should be. Afterall, our patients are our wives, daughters, mothers, brothers and sisters.”
The luncheon was followed up the next night with the Delicious Destinations main event and social, which this year featured a “Roaring 20s” theme and included a speakeasy room to go with a variety of local chef’s cuisines for attendees to enjoy.
Both the Delicious Destinations luncheon and main event were held at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. The featured wine educator at the luncheon was Shaun Wright, fine wine manager for North Florida at Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits.
