May 9, 2025 • 10 mins
Do you know the best place to get pizza? Dan Richer brings us a taste of his famous Razza Pizza to 'The Big Show'!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Today's Daily Highlight from Elvis Duran in the Morning show.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Here in New York City, we're very, very very finicky
about our pizza. And if anyone ever says, well, I
had the best pizza in the country when I was
in Los Angeles next week, we're like a million farts
upon you for saying that. But if it's over in Brooklyn,
we're like, Okay, well, Brooklyn actually makes more sense than
Manhattan in a lot of ways. Sometimes you could argue that.
(00:27):
But when this place popped up over in Jersey City,
New Jersey, they're like, Oh, you've got to get over there.
But you can go over there. You're not going to get.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
In, you won't, but it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
You're not going to get in. They say, it's amazing.
But how do you know if you can't get in.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh, because I will place my order and I'll wait
one hundred and twenty minutes and go get my pizza exactly,
and I love it and I.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Do it all. We're talking about Rozza pizza, yes, or
you'd say Rozza. I don't know that. It's how you're
technically it's Rozza. It's Rozza, right, Yeah. Bobby flay Raves
it out. Okay, that voice that just told me it's Rozza,
John Richer, I mean Dan, Richard, Dan Richer, Why did
you decide Jersey City to do this this pizza place?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
You know, I wanted to be close to New York City,
but not in it, and I like, I love being
a part of that community. It's a developing area. It's incredible, right,
so dynamic it is.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It is dynamic.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Thank you for picking that spot.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Hell yeah, yeah. And you know, and a large majority
of our our family here, they live in Jersey City.
They're out in front of Rozza right now. Yeah, waiting
to get But you're not offended if someone says, raza, no,
I don't dumb question. Can I ask very offendive for
one in Paramus, New Jersey? That'd be nice?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Thanks, I would love that.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, put the vibes out there. Don't hold your breath
on that. Now. Here's the thing though, it is lines,
it is huge, and of course there are many arguments, Dan,
Actually why it's the favorite. The dough. The dough is
just beyond anything you've ever had. It's so thin. As
a matter of fact, put it in the light, you
(02:02):
can actually read through it. You can put your phone
behind it and read your text through the door. Right,
And so how did you learn how to do this?
Where'd you go? Did you actually go to.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Italy to learn how to do this? No, I've been
to Italy thirty times. But I've been doing it since
I got out of college in two thousand and two,
two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Where were you? I went to Rutgers, Right, you went
to Rutgers. Yeah, but you've been learning at home or
at other restaurants, learning by doing Yeah? Yeah, I was
working in a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I ended up buying that restaurant a few years later
and turned it into a behemoth of a restaurant, right, yeah,
and then I sold that one and focused in Jersey City.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
This pizza is incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's actually kind of torture some right now that we
have to speak and not be able to just shove
it down. But when you open this place, did you
think it was going to become what it is? Where
Friday nights there's a line out the door and it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Or I would be sitting here on Elvis Duran or that. No. No,
I just wanted to make a really delicious pizza. The
pizza that was the pizza of my dreams.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I wanted that. I still want that. Describe the pizza
of your dream. Describe this pizza that we're eating right now. Okay.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So in my cookbook, it's based around this pizza evaluation rubric.
It's sixty different characteristics about pizza that I loved. I
put it down on paper, and then I learned this
science and techniques behind how to get there sixty sixty.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, I'm sure you talk.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Tell them about your pepperoni cups. You were just telling
me how you went through how many.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Different Yeah, I have a little OCD and I'm never
quite satisfied with the status quo. So when I was
coming up with the pepperoni pizza, I lined up like
twenty different pepperonis, tasted all of them rigorous taste tests,
and then I read the labels of all of them,
and this one is the only one that I felt
comfortable serving. Wow, clean label. There's like five ingredients. They're
(03:59):
alls that are natural.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
And can you imagine, Yeah, a pepperoni tastest it's such
a gay porn. God, I'm dreams, I have dreams about this.
I've become taste. It was.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
It was very controversial when when people said, you know what,
the best pizza in New York City is actually in
Jersey City. So that must have caused a glut of
people to come over to see what it was all about.
Did you have some like haters and descenders? And how
did you handle these people? Because people came over there.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
To test it and they Yeah, we kill them with kindness.
I don't care what people's expectations are. We just try
to exceed them at all times.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah. Here we are, once again in New York City,
going on and on and on about pizza. This has
been a topic on our show for thirty years. I'm
sure what pizza makes you happy? Exactly. I'm so happy
pizza and pancakes, you know, I'm all about them people.
And I don't even start on the meatballs. Yeah. Bobby
(04:59):
Flay set right here and we asked him, where's your
favorite pizza? He said, Roza, he's a good man. Yeah,
you know, and people just people love it. What.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Also, when Dan came in here, he split this little
bottle to me.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Do you see this?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
They have their own type of crush red pepper. It's
not the pepper flakes that you see everywhere. It's totally different.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It's some great flavors in there. Yeah, exactly, it's four
different chilies. It's produced by an amazing company called Burlap
and Barrel out of Brooklyn. So this is our custom
crush red peppers. I was not okay with the shaker
on every table of cardboard. Stale chilis right, and these
(05:38):
are these are really incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah. I don't think anyone's really experienced something like this.
I haven't. It's nice. It's so different. No, it's it's
on here. I'm eating. My mouth has a nice tangle
to it.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, there's a little bit of smokiness in there from
Piman tone, which is a smoked.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Oh that's Spanish, isn't it. Yeah? Yeah, The Joy of Pizza.
Your book, Yeah, here's your name on it. It's amazing yours.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I'm still amazed that I actually wrote a book.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Okay, look, I think it's a beautiful book. The photography
is gorgeous. It takes you through everything from milling tomatoes
to what you do with your dough, everything.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And it's got those sixty characteristics to look for at
your favorite pizza place.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And I will be looking at those. But the thing is,
are you encouraging people to actually try to do this
at home. Yes, okay, I guess, hence the book. Yeah,
every time I've tried it, it's been major failure. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So pizza making is kind of like a skilled trade.
Rather than being a chef or a cook, like I
look at myself more similar to a plumber.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Right, you could do your own plumbing at your house.
I don't even do that.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
No, why would you you call it professional? But you
could do it if you wanted to. So I wanted
to enable people to actually learn the trade, learn the skills,
the very real skills. Pizza making is a process of
thirty steps, and you have to excel at each individual
step to end up with a great final product.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
The only time my pizza they ever come out is
ever come out great? Is I consider it by accident.
I actually one out of maybe five comes out really great.
So but now you can go to Amazon, you can
order what the OONI what are these others? We love?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I have like five oonies in my house.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That's kind of creepy. I love it where you put these.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
My garage is filled with them, and every now and
then my wife makes me get rid of one. But
then UNI will send me their their latest and greatest model,
which is always.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You're herding incredible, you're heading pizza ovens. I am a
mile toward. But these are great little ovens and you
can get them for like a couple hundred dollars and
and I just you put it outside, plug it in,
or fire it up in whatever way you can do it.
What's your favorite? Your favorite way to fire up an oven?
Is it? Is it coal? Is it a wood? Is
it a what? So?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
At At my restaurant, I'm all about wood fired ovens.
I love the primal nature of it. But at home,
I always recommend if you have at ny, get the
gas burner, because you don't want to be fiddling around
with lighting fires.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
One of the first things that I teach new pizza
makers at my restaurant is how to build and maintain fires.
You don't want to have to do that at home.
You've got enough to manage. Keep it fun, keep it light.
When we make pizza at home with my kids, I
let them do all the work and I'm just kind
of conducting the symphony. And it's it's just amazingly fun
(08:28):
and delicious, And who really cares about the quality of
your home pizza. At the end of the day, let's
just make it about family, friends and getting being together.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Ben, I want good pizza the family. No, I love that,
and I look, I'm gonna tell everyone, Hey, go to
Rotch of Pizza over in Jersey City's okay, what's the
top secret? Best time to get over there? Make a reservation.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We take reservations through Rezi, right, make a reservation.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
That's the best way to do it. What a treat
you you. You got that oven cranking at four point
thirty in the morning and you threw these pies in
and they are delicious. They do and they travel, they
travel well. I see, I love pizza. The next morning
I was leaving, I leave it out and eat it
when it's been sitting out. Is that dangerous? I'm gonna
die from them?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Now you're fine, Okay, So you saw me chuckle for
a second. I was looking at my phone my sister.
So anytime somebody comes to visit me and they say
where should we go? I always take them there. And
my sister said, well, well, well you finally met your
little Pizza friend, did you.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Congratulations, You're the official little Pizza Friend. So I encourage
anyone and everyone to check out The Joy of Pizza
everything you need to know. It's a New York Times bestseller.
Of course, Dan Richer and chef Katie Parla. Actually she
is incredible, an incredible food tourism guru over in Rome.
(09:52):
And you you've toured the restaurants of Rome with her.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, She's taken me to the deep south of Italy,
places that you would never stumble upon. It's all locals only.
Some places were in the in the hills outside of Naples.
She took me to a restaurant on the side of
Mount Vesuvius that you'll never stumble on. And by the
end of the meal they were bringing me into the
kitchen and spoon feeding me sauce. It was incredible, just
(10:17):
amazing food moments. But all the places you went, our
friend of Keila has been there. Y. You got to
come out to Almah and visit Akil.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I would love that. You would love him the book, Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Eric Wolfinger is the photographer and he literally sat on
the floor while and took a photo from above as
I was stretching the pizza with flower raining down on him.
He was covered in flowers. That picture it's a beautiful
piece of art, The Joy of Pizza. We'll post it
at Elvis Durand's show on Instagram. Dan, I cannot thank
(10:53):
you enough for what you've done for us today.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Thanks for having me, it's incredible. Thanks for being had
Today's Daily Highlight from Elvis Duran in the Morning show.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Here in New York City, we're very, very very finicky
about our pizza. And if anyone ever says, well, I
had the best pizza in the country when I was
in Los Angeles next week, we're like a million farts
upon you for saying that. But if it's over in Brooklyn,
we're like, Okay, well, Brooklyn actually makes more sense than
Manhattan in a lot of ways. Sometimes you could argue that.
(00:27):
But when this place popped up over in Jersey City,
New Jersey, they're like, Oh, you've got to get over there.
But you can go over there. You're not going to get.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
In, you won't, but it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
You're not going to get in. They say, it's amazing.
But how do you know if you can't get in.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh, because I will place my order and I'll wait
one hundred and twenty minutes and go get my pizza exactly,
and I love it and I.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Do it all. We're talking about Rozza pizza, yes, or
you'd say Rozza. I don't know that. It's how you're
technically it's Rozza. It's Rozza, right, Yeah. Bobby flay Raves
it out. Okay, that voice that just told me it's Rozza,
John Richer, I mean Dan, Richard, Dan Richer, Why did
you decide Jersey City to do this this pizza place?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
You know, I wanted to be close to New York City,
but not in it, and I like, I love being
a part of that community. It's a developing area. It's incredible, right,
so dynamic it is.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It is dynamic.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Thank you for picking that spot.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Hell yeah, yeah. And you know, and a large majority
of our our family here, they live in Jersey City.
They're out in front of Rozza right now. Yeah, waiting
to get But you're not offended if someone says, raza, no,
I don't dumb question. Can I ask very offendive for
one in Paramus, New Jersey? That'd be nice?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Thanks, I would love that.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, put the vibes out there. Don't hold your breath
on that. Now. Here's the thing though, it is lines,
it is huge, and of course there are many arguments, Dan,
Actually why it's the favorite. The dough. The dough is
just beyond anything you've ever had. It's so thin. As
a matter of fact, put it in the light, you
(02:02):
can actually read through it. You can put your phone
behind it and read your text through the door. Right,
And so how did you learn how to do this?
Where'd you go? Did you actually go to.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Italy to learn how to do this? No, I've been
to Italy thirty times. But I've been doing it since
I got out of college in two thousand and two,
two thousand and three.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Where were you? I went to Rutgers, Right, you went
to Rutgers. Yeah, but you've been learning at home or
at other restaurants, learning by doing Yeah? Yeah, I was
working in a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I ended up buying that restaurant a few years later
and turned it into a behemoth of a restaurant, right, yeah,
and then I sold that one and focused in Jersey City.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
This pizza is incredible.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's actually kind of torture some right now that we
have to speak and not be able to just shove
it down. But when you open this place, did you
think it was going to become what it is? Where
Friday nights there's a line out the door and it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Or I would be sitting here on Elvis Duran or that. No. No,
I just wanted to make a really delicious pizza. The
pizza that was the pizza of my dreams.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I wanted that. I still want that. Describe the pizza
of your dream. Describe this pizza that we're eating right now. Okay.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
So in my cookbook, it's based around this pizza evaluation rubric.
It's sixty different characteristics about pizza that I loved. I
put it down on paper, and then I learned this
science and techniques behind how to get there sixty sixty.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, I'm sure you talk.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Tell them about your pepperoni cups. You were just telling
me how you went through how many.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Different Yeah, I have a little OCD and I'm never
quite satisfied with the status quo. So when I was
coming up with the pepperoni pizza, I lined up like
twenty different pepperonis, tasted all of them rigorous taste tests,
and then I read the labels of all of them,
and this one is the only one that I felt
comfortable serving. Wow, clean label. There's like five ingredients. They're
(03:59):
alls that are natural.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
And can you imagine, Yeah, a pepperoni tastest it's such
a gay porn. God, I'm dreams, I have dreams about this.
I've become taste. It was.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
It was very controversial when when people said, you know what,
the best pizza in New York City is actually in
Jersey City. So that must have caused a glut of
people to come over to see what it was all about.
Did you have some like haters and descenders? And how
did you handle these people? Because people came over there.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
To test it and they Yeah, we kill them with kindness.
I don't care what people's expectations are. We just try
to exceed them at all times.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah. Here we are, once again in New York City,
going on and on and on about pizza. This has
been a topic on our show for thirty years. I'm
sure what pizza makes you happy? Exactly. I'm so happy
pizza and pancakes, you know, I'm all about them people.
And I don't even start on the meatballs. Yeah. Bobby
(04:59):
Flay set right here and we asked him, where's your
favorite pizza? He said, Roza, he's a good man. Yeah,
you know, and people just people love it. What.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Also, when Dan came in here, he split this little
bottle to me.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Do you see this?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
They have their own type of crush red pepper. It's
not the pepper flakes that you see everywhere. It's totally different.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
It's some great flavors in there. Yeah, exactly, it's four
different chilies. It's produced by an amazing company called Burlap
and Barrel out of Brooklyn. So this is our custom
crush red peppers. I was not okay with the shaker
on every table of cardboard. Stale chilis right, and these
(05:38):
are these are really incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah. I don't think anyone's really experienced something like this.
I haven't. It's nice. It's so different. No, it's it's
on here. I'm eating. My mouth has a nice tangle
to it.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, there's a little bit of smokiness in there from
Piman tone, which is a smoked.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Oh that's Spanish, isn't it. Yeah? Yeah, The Joy of Pizza.
Your book, Yeah, here's your name on it. It's amazing yours.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I'm still amazed that I actually wrote a book.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Okay, look, I think it's a beautiful book. The photography
is gorgeous. It takes you through everything from milling tomatoes
to what you do with your dough, everything.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And it's got those sixty characteristics to look for at
your favorite pizza place.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And I will be looking at those. But the thing is,
are you encouraging people to actually try to do this
at home. Yes, okay, I guess, hence the book. Yeah,
every time I've tried it, it's been major failure. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So pizza making is kind of like a skilled trade.
Rather than being a chef or a cook, like I
look at myself more similar to a plumber.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Right, you could do your own plumbing at your house.
I don't even do that.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
No, why would you you call it professional? But you
could do it if you wanted to. So I wanted
to enable people to actually learn the trade, learn the skills,
the very real skills. Pizza making is a process of
thirty steps, and you have to excel at each individual
step to end up with a great final product.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
The only time my pizza they ever come out is
ever come out great? Is I consider it by accident.
I actually one out of maybe five comes out really great.
So but now you can go to Amazon, you can
order what the OONI what are these others? We love?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I have like five oonies in my house.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That's kind of creepy. I love it where you put these.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
My garage is filled with them, and every now and
then my wife makes me get rid of one. But
then UNI will send me their their latest and greatest model,
which is always.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
You're herding incredible, you're heading pizza ovens. I am a
mile toward. But these are great little ovens and you
can get them for like a couple hundred dollars and
and I just you put it outside, plug it in,
or fire it up in whatever way you can do it.
What's your favorite? Your favorite way to fire up an oven?
Is it? Is it coal? Is it a wood? Is
it a what? So?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
At At my restaurant, I'm all about wood fired ovens.
I love the primal nature of it. But at home,
I always recommend if you have at ny, get the
gas burner, because you don't want to be fiddling around
with lighting fires.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
One of the first things that I teach new pizza
makers at my restaurant is how to build and maintain fires.
You don't want to have to do that at home.
You've got enough to manage. Keep it fun, keep it light.
When we make pizza at home with my kids, I
let them do all the work and I'm just kind
of conducting the symphony. And it's it's just amazingly fun
(08:28):
and delicious, And who really cares about the quality of
your home pizza. At the end of the day, let's
just make it about family, friends and getting being together.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Ben, I want good pizza the family. No, I love that,
and I look, I'm gonna tell everyone, Hey, go to
Rotch of Pizza over in Jersey City's okay, what's the
top secret? Best time to get over there? Make a reservation.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We take reservations through Rezi, right, make a reservation.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
That's the best way to do it. What a treat
you you. You got that oven cranking at four point
thirty in the morning and you threw these pies in
and they are delicious. They do and they travel, they
travel well. I see, I love pizza. The next morning
I was leaving, I leave it out and eat it
when it's been sitting out. Is that dangerous? I'm gonna
die from them?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Now you're fine, Okay, So you saw me chuckle for
a second. I was looking at my phone my sister.
So anytime somebody comes to visit me and they say
where should we go? I always take them there. And
my sister said, well, well, well you finally met your
little Pizza friend, did you.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Congratulations, You're the official little Pizza Friend. So I encourage
anyone and everyone to check out The Joy of Pizza
everything you need to know. It's a New York Times bestseller.
Of course, Dan Richer and chef Katie Parla. Actually she
is incredible, an incredible food tourism guru over in Rome.
(09:52):
And you you've toured the restaurants of Rome with her.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, She's taken me to the deep south of Italy,
places that you would never stumble upon. It's all locals only.
Some places were in the in the hills outside of Naples.
She took me to a restaurant on the side of
Mount Vesuvius that you'll never stumble on. And by the
end of the meal they were bringing me into the
kitchen and spoon feeding me sauce. It was incredible, just
(10:17):
amazing food moments. But all the places you went, our
friend of Keila has been there. Y. You got to
come out to Almah and visit Akil.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I would love that. You would love him the book, Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Eric Wolfinger is the photographer and he literally sat on
the floor while and took a photo from above as
I was stretching the pizza with flower raining down on him.
He was covered in flowers. That picture it's a beautiful
piece of art, The Joy of Pizza. We'll post it
at Elvis Durand's show on Instagram. Dan, I cannot thank
(10:53):
you enough for what you've done for us today.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Thanks for having me, it's incredible. Thanks for being had
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