If you missed last week's episode about Dan Richer and Razza Pizza in Jersey City, NJ, listen to that first and this will make way more sense! Click here to listen.

Pull up a chair with my family and I at the amazing Razza Pizza and listen as my friend and owner/chef/author Dan blows us away with :

• His homemade cultured butter topped with CAVIAR!
• 2 different expressions of his world-famous bread and an explanation to my nephew Aidan's great question about how they are different!
• Our pairing with Dan's special Pét Nat Collaboration with a NJ winery and my family's reactions to their first pét nat wine. (Want to learn more about Pet Nat? Listen to my earlier episode all about it! )

Check out Razza and make a reservation to visit here!

Get Dan's Cookbook, The Joy of Pizza Here

You need to watch Somebody Feed Phil (Dan is featured in the NYC episode, Season 2 Ep 6) and we just LOVE PHIL!

Podcast website: www.sipwithnikki.com: Sign up there to be part of our SIP Community and receive my free Wine Tips download

Did you know I make my own wine here in Sonoma County? My 2021 Sollevato Sangiovese is available to be shipped to most US States. Use the code PODLISTENER for 10% off. It's a delicious, medium bodied, aromatic red wine that is perfect with pizza, pasta and your charcuterie spread!

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If you'd like to Support the Podcast, you can buy me a glass of wine and get a shoutout on a future episode.

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Questions? Comments? Guest requests? nikki@sipwithnikki.com

You will be full at the end of this meal.

You guys, don't feel any obligation to eat every bite, because it's going to be a ridiculous amount of food.

Hello and welcome to SIP with Nikki.

It's Nikki Lamberty coming to you from Sonoma County, California.

However, just over a week or so ago, I was in my home state of New Jersey for the holidays, and I got to go to one of my favorite.

Restaurants on the planet.

Now, I don't normally require anything of my listeners except to press play, join the party and have fun.

However, if you did not listen to last week's episode, the encore release of New York times, bestselling author and chef, Dan Richard of Raza pizza.

Stop pause.

Yes, you I'm talking to you.

Pause this, go back, listen to that, and then come back to this episode because this is essentially like a part two.

You see, Dan and I grew up in the same hometown in New Jersey, and he is the owner and chef of a very highly accoladed restaurant in Jersey City, just outside of Manhattan, and the Ever since I

reconnected with Dan and discovered this restaurant, I try to make it a point to go and visit when I am back home on the East Coast about twice a year.

So what you're about to hear is me bringing along my sister Dana and my brother in law Keith, who have been to Rasa once before.

But I got to bring three first timers, my nephew, Aiden, and his girlfriend, Lauren, and Aiden is a cadet at West Point and was home on break.

And also my niece, Sophia, who's about to start her college journey.

So the six of us went to Rasa and I'm bringing you along.

Why?

Because I need you to hear the magic that is Daniel Richer.

Yes, Dan, I'm calling you Daniel, because I'm being formal here.

And also because throughout the year, I've done some episodes where I've recorded on location and in restaurants and in wine tastings, and I've got great feedback.

And it sounds like you guys love that sort of reality audio.

So I thought this was a perfect example to bring you along.

Now, I did not record the entire meal.

We were there for about two and a half hours.

Nobody has time to listen to that.

What I did, interestingly enough, want to share with you today is not even the pizza, which is what he's known for.

It was all the stuff before the pizza that was really surprising and exciting.

Hint, hint, caviar over butter.

What?

See, Dan is also known for his bread making, and we get into the differences of the types of breads that he makes.

And I also got to introduce my family to his.

Petmat.

Now, if you're not familiar with the wine style that is Petmat, like a natural wine, there is a whole episode, a few episodes back, you can go back and

catch up on that, but Dan has a very cool partnership with the New Jersey winery with a specially branded Petmat wine that he makes with his pizza yeast.

And I got to introduce my family to that and they were really blown away just with the whole concept of it.

So I'm really excited for you to just listen in, get a virtual taste.

I'm also excited for you to just hear the level of dedication and expertise that Dan has for what he does.

It's super inspiring.

And my hope, of course, of sharing this with you is that next time you are in the tri state area.

You must, must, must make a reservation.

Go to Raza Pizza.

You're welcome.

So here we go.

What are we looking at, everyone?

Bread and butter.

Bread and butter.

I've heard the meatballs.

With caviar.

Yeah, definitely meatballs.

Pizza wise, that's all you.

You know it's homesick.

I'll eat literally anything.

Sausage one looks good.

Chili oil.

Okay, okay, I'll pick a bottle of

fresh juice.

Hi.

Thanks for having me.

Good to

see

you.

You guys, this is the famous Dan.

You're getting, you're making a

plan.

Aiden.

How's it going?

This is his

girlfriend, Lauren.

What's your name?

This is my niece, Sophia.

Sophia.

Lauren.

Good to see you.

How's it going?

Good to see

you.

What's happening?

How are you?

Happy to be here.

Thank you.

I'm glad you guys are here.

We're excited.

What's happening?

They're very excited.

Guess who we listened to in the car on the way here

to print them?

Our episode from last year.

So they know everything about you.

I

felt like I could have done another We should do another one.

We'll update it.

We'll do it again.

Do

another one.

I got more to say.

You and me both.

We saw your Instagram post yesterday about caviar?

Oh.

They are in butter.

You might need to do that.

Is that a new thing?

No, we've been doing it the past couple of years.

Yeah.

It's honestly, we have it on the menu because I want caviar in my fridge at all times.

This is why we're friends.

Yeah, this is why we are friends.

We have it on Christmas Eve and they all love it.

We're creating monsters.

They were also all shoving oysters and eating them on Christmas Eve.

Love that.

My, my son's been eating caviar since he was two.

Bro In Law Keith: Just like naturally drawn

to that, like saline, salty thing.

Anything from the sea he eats, but he said that now and he will destroy a tin of caviar.

Yeah, it's like a hobby.

Very.

So we're getting some for New Year's Eve.

Yeah.

How was Christmas, Christmas Eve?

It was great.

Did you host?

Yes.

Nice.

I

host it all.

Dana is the superstar hostess.

Really?

And their

home is beautiful and they can fit everyone in there.

Better to be that way.

We did.

Not seven.

What did we do?

Six fishes?

So we're, we're fairly holy.

We did six fishes.

So close.

But yeah, caviar and oysters and shrimp and crabs, big clams.

Yeah.

And you guys

cooked everything?

Yeah.

Damn.

I'm glad you guys are here.

Yeah.

Let's do this.

Yeah.

What are we, what are we drinking?

A white?

We got a little cut

net while we were waiting because I was telling them about it.

And I was reminded of your partnership.

With Benedicte.

Yes.

With your yeast.

Yes.

And we were listening about petnets, so we were thinking if we're going to do some of the caviar bread and butter, we need some sparkling with that, right?

Why not?

Would you pair the petnet or would you pair, like, Picard, Semmel, and champagne?

I

like everything.

Yeah.

There's not much that I don't like.

Yeah.

I would drink any of the whites or oranges or bubbles that is on our menu.

Which is why they're on your menu.

Yeah.

Yeah, and then other than that, everybody eats everything.

What's new since last year?

Anything that you're like, oh, you have to try, blah, blah.

On the menu?

Yeah.

Let's see.

This time of year, Cavallini.

If you didn't, you might have had that last year.

Brussels sprouts.

Oh, we're definitely

doing that.

Melted anchovies and garlic.

Yes, love it.

It's

incredible.

I think the East Coast Margarita is different from last year.

Uh, different mozzarella cheese on that one.

Okay.

We love a good margarita.

These guys have been hearing about the meatballs for a couple of years.

Oh, I need

that.

We'll probably start with some bread and butter, caviar and meatballs.

And we'll go from there.

Yep.

Does that sound good?

Are we doing vegetables, salads?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You say no?

No veggies.

And do you guys want to pick pizzas or do you want me to pick pizzas?

You guys want to give input?

I feel like

a professional knows what pizza is.

I mean, we're, yeah.

You are a very smart man.

He's in the army.

West Point.

You're in the army?

West Point.

Damn.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Plays rugby.

That's what I'm talking about.

Yeah.

I think we're in your hands.

Yeah.

Cool.

Does anyone see a must have that you want to make sure is on the table?

What did you say?

The sausage?

Sausage.

Okay.

Sprouts and the rest we are, we're here for the journey.

Perfect.

Take us on a ride.

Good.

How are your parents?

They're good.

Yeah?

Yeah.

They say hello.

We may have to take them, uh, leftovers.

We'll probably order a taco to take them.

That's a great idea.

Yeah,

we gotta flip flop who gets to come and enjoy.

I come every time.

Let's

do this, yeah?

Yeah.

Love it.

Alright.

Thanks for being a

sport.

Game on,

let's go.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm glad we got connected.

Man, I love pizza.

Alright, bread, butter, caviar.

Butter and bread is our thing because I've been studying pizza making for the past, like, 20 something years trying to understand it.

And I needed to study bread making in order to understand pizza.

Once you start studying bread making, you realize that it's all fermentation.

And once you ferment one thing, you kind of want to ferment everything.

So I got really big into cheese making and dairy fermentation, like making my own yogurt, creme fraiche, sour cream, and cultured butters.

So this is our standard butter.

We've been making that for over 12 years now.

It's really good.

It's grass fed cow's cream from Pennsylvania.

We inoculate it with this heirloom Scandinavian yogurt culture that we keep alive.

It's very similar to making sourdough bread where we keep a starter alive and we feed it from batch to batch and that's what initiates fermentation with beneficial bacteria.

Gives it an amazing flavor.

And that's Siberian sturgeon.

This is our baguette and that's our sourdough.

So make sure you flip flop And feel free if there's that's like a ridiculous amount of butter Feel free to keep it on the table for crust dipping When the pizza comes

yes, but

there is also plenty of extra bread.

So if you want more bread Ask for it, but I recommend not filling up on bread Actually,

you haven't seen him stand up yet.

Oh, I can imagine.

Yeah.

You will be full at the end of this meal.

You guys don't feel any obligation to eat every bite because it's going to be a ridiculous amount of

food.

So fun.

Fun, fun.

Cheers.

Oh my god.

Enjoy.

Alright, get him.

Get him.

You want sourdough first?

I don't get full like that.

Sophia's waiting patiently.

Nice, ready to go.

Oh, wow.

And just the bread alone, right?

I'll try the sourdough.

Bro In Law Keith: Mostly sourdough.

Now, what is that?

Baguette.

Someone needs to ask him, What is the difference?

Look at the difference, look at the amount of air in the baguette is more a great question to ask him.

Bro In Law Keith: Talk about the 20 years of 20 years of finding it How

do you expect me to go back to normal butter

after this?

It is like ice cream.

You can just eat

it with a spoon.

Can I just

say that?

Yes, you can.

I was being like Yes, you can.

You're all slowing down.

Yeah, and I didn't see when she opened it.

Usually Petna has a beer cap.

It was.

Yeah, so that's kind of this miniature.

Is this considered a, like a sparkling wine?

It's been that category, but it's not a true sparkling wine, because the process and how they make it is different.

It's

Bro In Law Keith: not cider.

It's like cider.

Not a cider.

Yeah.

It's definitely in between.

It's definitely.

Petulant, natural, petnat, is like a more rustic kind of wine, and yeah, it's, long story short, the process in how you would make sparkling wine, which is creating second fermentation in the bottle, which makes the CO2.

This is leftover CO2.

It's a different process.

It's really only become popular, especially in the U.

S., I would say in the last five to ten years.

And it's kind of part of the natural wine movement because it's generally made with native fermentation, right?

So whatever grapes these are that they pick, when you are going to make wine and have fermentation, you can either add a specific yeast, which is what I do.

It's called inoculation.

You're like, ready, set, go, yeast.

Or you can say, I'm just going to leave these grapes sitting here and the natural yeast that exists The native yeast will start fermentation on its own.

That is what you do with hemp.

Which truly is things starting.

How did you make your sourdough starter?

You left flour and water on the counter, and the natural yeast that exists in your house, which is different than my house, which is different than here, which is why all sourdough strains have their own sort of character.

That's the same way that you do native fermentation in wine.

So this, patinat, can only be done in that way.

You cannot inoculate or add yeast.

Sugar becomes alcohol.

So if your sugar and your grapes were here, then your alcohol is gonna be here.

But if your sugar was here, then your alcohol is gonna be here, right?

So that's more what determines the alcohol, the yeast, or the inoculating versus native.

Okay.

Incoming.

This is a beet salad,

pistachios, goat cheese, pistachio cookie.

Then we have our apple salad, Jersey apples, greens, smoked ricotta.

And this is our green salad, herbs and yogurt.

Yeah.

They are all gorgeous.

Oh my gosh.

Enjoy.

I love how it's layered.

You take a layer like that.

And then some ricotta.

Oh, thank you.

Like that.

And this is the dressing for the apple salad.

If you need any more.

Seemed a little on the light side.

Hayden had a question for you about the bread.

That's right.

Tell me.

Oh, I got it.

Oh, you're getting mic'd up too.

Sir, what is your question regarding the bread?

So one thing that we noticed is like, Was it the baguette is a lot more airy and open and then sourdough is like typically a little bit taller, too A little bit firmer.

Just wondering like is that the yeast?

Is that how you bake it?

Is that,

how's that?

So they're just different breads similar ingredients, but so the sourdough is flour, water, salt, and our starter.

But we blend four different flours for that one, and the baguette is only three flours.

The ratios of ingredients are a little bit different also, and that leads to different textures, different colors, different flavors, and the baguette has a little bit of commercial yeast in it, so that makes it a little bit

more open, but honestly, For such a simple food, it is extraordinarily complicated to make and to make consistently every single loaf, every single day, year after year.

Simple things like the amount of pressure that we use with our hands during shaping can impact how open or closed the crumb, which is the interior of the bread is.

That's crazy.

Yeah, it's wild.

All very temperature sensitive, so Two degrees different in te in temperature from day one to day two and we'll get different Results.

So we're actively managing all these minute details and these variables that that change because

Yeah

It's natural.

So it's a lot.

It's pretty cool.

Yeah for such a simple pedestrian food like bread and pizza wildly complicated So, but I love it.

How are the breads different?

Yes,

I love it.

How is the, how is it though?

Beautiful.

We

just sent a picture of this to Amanda, and she is not happy.

Hopefully, I'll be out in Sonoma again this year.

The pizza competition again?

I don't

know.

It's like year to year.

Yeah, I'm hoping that they have me do it again.

Because I love coming up here.

You'll do it if

they'll have you.

Oh, hell yeah.

I didn't think they were going to have me this past year, but.

This was three?

This was three, yeah.

Yeah.

Hoping they don't try to find somebody bigger and better, because they could easily do that.

Who's

bigger and better?

I don't know.

Bobby Flay.

Someone who's been on

Chef's Table?

Yeah.

When are you going to have your Chef's Table episode?

Never.

He was on Somebody Feed Phil.

You guys watched Somebody Feed Phil?

Yeah.

Oh, were you?

Yeah.

Yes.

That was fun.

Did I leave you late?

Was that recently?

No, a bunch of seasons ago.

He did New York, and it was amazing.

It was the first time I met him, and Has he been back

since?

Every time he comes in.

I

would fall over.

I want to hug him.

He

came over to my house for dinner last winter.

He was doing a show at Count Basie in Red Bank.

And he was like, where should I go eat?

And you need to come to my house.

He brought his whole family over, everybody.

And we had the best time.

You saw him live.

He came to Santa Rosa a couple of months ago.

Just delightful.

He really is.

And that's how he actually is.

Phil Rosenthal, we're talking to you.

You're next on the podcast.

I love it.

Yeah, he's a sweetheart.

Yeah.

Do you guys know it?

Somebody Feed Phil?

It's on Netflix?

Yeah.

Oh my god, again, who wants it?

It's amazing.

Yeah.

Really makes you want to travel.

Yeah.

And eat.

And eat.

I already want to do that.

And be nice.

And he's so nice.

He's bro nice.

He's just so nice.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, if you don't know what we're talking about, somebody feed Phil with Phil Rosenthal on Netflix.

That is your next binge watch.

Oh my goodness.

Love him so much.

Phil, will you come on the podcast?

I would be honored.

So you didn't even hear the pizza part.

So after the bread, the caviar, the beautiful salads, we of course had his world famous meatballs, which are cooked in the pizza oven with soaked sourdough bread inside of them.

That is the secret ingredient for moisture in your bowls.

Can I say that?

In your meatballs, and the recipe for that is in the Joy of Pizza, and then we literally had, I think, eight different pizzas for six people.

We had a beautiful classic margarita, we had a burrata pie, the cavallini, which is brussel sprouts with garlic and his homemade anchovy oil.

Talk about umami flavors.

Of course, we also had a fantastic mushroom or fungi pie that was so killer with his fermented chili paste that he makes in house recipe in the book as well.

Also, we had a Sausage pie and a pepperoni pie, and I won't go on and on about the pizza because if you go back to the last week's episode, you'll hear more about that, but it's phenomenal.

So, I hope that you make it a point to spend some time and visit Dan and Kevin and the team at Rata next time you are in the area.

I will put the link in the show notes for the restaurant for his book for last week's episode in case you can't find it.

for the PetNet episode.

And I hope that you enjoyed coming along for our very special dinner.

As always, if you're enjoying Sip with Nikki, please take a moment and leave us a rating and or a review in whatever podcast platform you're listening in.

And if you're listening in YouTube, go ahead and thumbs up and subscribe.

And if you'd like to support the podcast, be an angel, buy me a pizza, buy me a glass of wine, you can do that with the link in the show notes as well.

Thank you to Dan for being a good sport and letting me throw a microphone on you in the middle of your busy restaurant life.

And whatever you do between now and next week, I hope you eat well and sip well.

Um, um, Um, Um,

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