Jody Williams is a self-taught, James Beard Award-winning chef. Together with wife and fellow chef Rita Sodi, Williams founded Officina 1397, the widely-admired family of restaurants in New York’s West Village – Buvette, I Sodi, Via Carota, Bar Pisellino, and The Commerce Inn.

Williams established Buvette Gastrothèque on Grove Street in early 2011. Buvette has since become a beloved neighborhood gem for eating and drinking well at any time of day. In 2014, Williams and Sodi created Via Carota, an Italian osteria equal parts inventive and nostalgic. Deemed “New York’s most perfect restaurant” by The New Yorker, Via Carota earned Williams and Sodi the James Beard Award for Best Chefs, NYC. Just across Grove Street, Bar Pisellino is a morning-to-late, classic Italian bar dedicated to the art of drinking. The chefs’ latest collaboration is The Commerce Inn, an early American tavern and cookery. The Commerce Inn celebrates old New York in a storied space that has welcomed guests for nearly a century.

Williams is the author of Buvette: The Pleasure of Good Food and co-author of Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking, a critically-lauded bestseller. Williams’ cooking has been praised in such publications as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, Gourmet, Elle, The Wall Street Journal, Time Out, and New York Magazine. In 2022 Williams and Sodi founded Via Carota Craft Cocktails, award-winning, ready-to-serve cocktails inspired by the beloved osteria. All of Williams and Sodi’s restaurants are steps away from each other, creating an enchanting culinary enclave in the beautiful, historic West Village.