From Mopping New Brunswick Floors to Making the World’s Best Pizza
Rutgers alumnus Dan Richer ranks high on a list of the world’s best pizza chefs.
When Dan Richer was a freshman at Rutgers–New Brunswick in the late 1990s, he landed a job at Thomas Sweet Ice Cream and Chocolate near the College Avenue campus.
“I loved the process, learning the recipes, seeing how the kitchen was organized, and learning about cleanliness standards,” he says. “I made some lifelong friends there.”
Those friends include the proprietors and Rutgers alumni Michael and Jennifer Schnur who still own and operate Thomas Sweet on Easton Avenue. “They come here for dinner, which is crazy to me,” he says of his renowned Jersey City restaurant, Razza Pizza Artigianale. “They taught me how to mop the floor properly. And now, after being in the restaurant business for so long, I’ve taught probably thousands of people how to mop a floor.”
The 2002 Rutgers graduate also has mopped up his competition in the pizza-making business with Razza, as his restaurant is more commonly known, which he opened in Jersey City in 2012. It leapt to the top of many pizza connoisseur lists after a New York Times review in 2017 with the headline “Is New York’s Best Pizza in New Jersey?” raved about Richer’s restaurant. The Times food critic Pete Wells wrote that “no pizzeria in the five boroughs gave me as much pleasure.”
An avalanche of awards and recognition has followed. He has been nominated six times for the prestigious James Beard Award. In 2025, he was ranked No. 22 among the top 100 pizza chefs in the world by The Best Pizza Awards. He was the only pizza chef on the list in New Jersey, and one of only 14 nationwide. Of the 100 chefs listed worldwide, he was the second-highest ranked in the U.S.
‘New Jersey through and through’
Richer was born and raised in Matawan, New Jersey. He graduated from Matawan Regional High School, where he competed on the track team, and followed his brother’s footsteps to Rutgers.
“I knew I wanted to go there,” he said. “It was close enough to home, but far enough away from home where I could actually start to live my own life. It’s also a state school, so my family could sort of afford it at the time.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in 2002, he flew to Italy where he was inspired by the food. He returned and started a catering company, and then began working in professional kitchens. In 2007, he purchased a struggling pizzeria in Maplewood, New Jersey, and turned it into a fun, lively neighborhood restaurant lauded for its fresh ingredients and artisanal pizza, an approach he now employs at Razza in Jersey City.
Through his journey to the top of the list for the world’s pizza chefs, the Garden State has always been home. “I’m New Jersey through and through,” he says. “Our tomatoes are better than anywhere I’ve ever tasted in the world. I’m pumped to be here doing what I do in the Garden State.”
The Rutgers hazelnut and other incredible ingredients
A trademark of Razza pizza is the freshness and uniqueness of ingredients. In 2021, he authored a cookbook (with Katie Parla) that reveals the secrets to his sublime pies. By following the steps outlined in The Joy of Pizza: Everything You Need to Know, which starts with abiding by his Pizza Evaluation Rubric: “Every time we taste a new brand of canned tomatoes, oil, or mozzarella, my staff and I analyze it and take copious notes about its characteristics and potential,” Richer writes. “Success is the product of the raw materials you start with, and the techniques you use to transform them.”
The Joy of Pizza covers the gamut: choosing ingredients; cooking techniques for different types of pie; pizza dough recipes; and classic and seasonal pizzas, sauces, and condiments. “I want toppings that are not only balanced in flavor, but also sourced from farmers and food producers I have relationships with, care for, and support,” he writes.
One ingredient on pizza Richer has embraced is hazelnuts. He was excited to learn that Rutgers researchers have developed a line of Rutgers hazelnut varieties available to growers. He developed a pizza using them. “When life gives you hazelnuts,” he says, “you make hazelnut pizza.”
He has connected with Rutgers researchers who have won grants for playing a role in addressing the challenges posed by eastern filbert blight, a tree disease that emerged in Oregon, where most hazelnuts are grown, which has the potential to seriously impact their production.
“I bought four trees from a nursery that has the Rutgers hazelnut,” he says. “I look out in my backyard and I see those small hazelnut trees.”
He says the continued connection with the university has been rewarding for him. “Following the whole progress of the hazelnut program at Rutgers has been such an amazing part of my professional career as a pizza maker and as a graduate,” he says.
WE ARE YOU is an ongoing series of stories about the people who embody Rutgers University’s unwavering commitment to academic excellence, building community, and the common good.
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