Jody Adams, award-winning chef/owner of Rialto restaurant, and Donald Wiest, President of Boston Public Market, join moderator Annie B. Copps, senior food editor for Yankee Magazine, to screen the documentary film "Food, Inc." and explore how the food industry shapes our economy, our health, and our lives.
After earning a degree from Brown University, Chef Jody Adams began her culinary career as a line cook at Seasons restaurant in the Bostonian Hotel in 1983. In 1990, she became the executive chef at Michela’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Adams opened Rialto in September 1994 and four months later, *The Boston Globe* awarded her four stars (the newspaper’s highest rating). In 1997, Jody received The Perrier-Jouet Best Chef Award: Northeast, from the James Beard Foundation. Two years ago, Adams launched an internal educational program, Guerilla Grilling, designed to connect her staff to the farmers and artisan producers that supply the restaurant. Adams owns Rialto located in Harvard Square and has been praised for her creativity and support of local farmers by *The Boston Globe*, *Boston Business Journal*, *Gourmet, Food & Wine*, *The New York Times*, and other publications. In addition to running her restaurant, Adams and husband, Ken Rivard, are co-authors of, *In the Hands of a Chef: Cooking with Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant*.
Donald W. Wiest is the President of Boston Public Market and a founding partner of Brennan, Dain, Le Ray, Wiest, Torpy & Garner, P.C. He focuses his law practice on complex zoning and related permitting work. Wiest served from 2001 to 2006 as the Land Use Counsel to the Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA"). In that capacity, he advised the BRA on a wide range of zoning and other land-use matters, including the permitting of nearly all large-scale projects involving complex zoning (such as PDAs, Urban Renewal Areas, and Institutional Master Plans); drafting new zoning governing significant areas of the city; and interpreting and drafting amendments to the Boston Zoning Code in a wide range of contexts. Wiest has given numerous presentations on development-related land-use issues at community meetings and public hearings. He worked closely on these matters with public officials throughout city and state government, private developers, and neighborhood groups and other public advocates. Wiest started his legal career at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago and then at Hale & Dorr's Boston Office.
Annie B. Copps is the senior editor of food for Yankee Magazine. Copps oversees the magazine's food coverage, both as an editor and contributor of feature stories and columns. Prior to Yankee, she served as food editor of Boston Magazine and features editor of Concierge and was widely known for her work as host of WBZ radio's Connoisseurs' Corner and WTKK's Table Talk with Annie Copps. As a television producer, Copps made her mark with two popular PBS series, Cooking with Todd English and Julia Child's Kitchen, where she was an assistant to the legendary grande dame of French cuisine. She has also appeared as a guest on NBC's Todayshow. Before her media career, Copps honed her skills as a cook at several notable Boston-area restaurants, including Olives, Jasper's, The Harvest, and Michela's.