264: GrossyPelosi

0:28This episode is brought to you by Resi and American Express. A potluck to me means like there's no point of view. And so you might get 10 different dishes that just don't sit well together. And it kind of just gives me a lot of anxiety. A true potluck where it's like bring whatever and we're all just going to eat it is like just so the last meal that I want to be invited to.

0:52This is Taste. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard.

0:59Dan Pelosi is the self-proclaimed Italian-American meatball behind the popular social media account and home entertainment mood board Grossi Pelosi. In this episode, we catch up with Dan to talk about his journey from working at a creative agency to running a mega-popular online food community. We talk about some of his favorite summer and fall recipes and dig into his debut cookbook, Let's Eat. I hope you enjoy my fun conversation with Dan Pelosi.

1:34Dan Pelosi, a.k.a. Grossi Pelosi, a.k.a. my new friend on Instagram. Hello. Thank you for joining This Is Taste. Thank you for having me. I'm truly honored to be here. I love seeing your smiling face in the studio. Oh, that's so sweet. It's great. And we were just talking a little off mic. There's no space. This is like a branding choice. It's Grossi, Pelosi. Grossi Pelosi, one word. One word. What's going on there? It just makes sense. It feels just like it's like a nickname. It feels like they flow. It rhymes, Grossi Pelosi. A lot of people just call me Grossi, which I love. You can call me sort of anything.

2:11Mom, dad, those are names I also get. But yeah, I just like, you know, people sometimes ask me if my first name is Grossi. Yeah, cool. Which kind of blows my mind. Yeah, because it would be an odd choice by your parents. It would be super weird. And so I think that it being sort of one word with the capital P makes it, to me, it brings it more to like a brand space than like a given name space. Yeah. I think that was kind of why I did it like when I first did it. It makes perfect sense. It's like not a pseudonym. It's like more of an overarching brand. Yeah, it's sort of like a bigger overarching brand thing, or at least it's become that.

2:46For a while, it was just sort of like social media moniker and very much rooted in like a self-deprecating joke, which I love because it just sort of shakes down all the seriousness that can be in this world. Well said. And just the references, it's a Drew Barrymore film, right? It sure is. Never Been Kissed. Right. Never Been Kissed. So the reference, explain that a bit. So the reference is when I was in college, which was way too long ago, Drew Barrymore's Never Been Kissed came out. She is called sort of in the not fun way, Josie Grossi. by her, you know, classmates or whatever. Bullied. Bullied.

3:21But my friends who were all high and drunk at RISD in college thought it would be really funny to start calling me Grossi Pelosi as a nickname. And me being sort of like a, you know, a good time gal was like, that's hysterical. I love it. Like Grossi Pelosi is so funny. So that was like Friendster, MySpace, Instagram, Facebook. Everything was just like, you know, Grossi Pelosi was like my handle. and then it's just followed me 40 20 years later i love that it was that that reference at that time and it's it's followed you which is like what all great social media accounts they follow you around stuck and now it's like a brand uh let's talk about rhode island uh what is good there for food i i don't talk to many folks who have gone to rizzer lived in you know over there in Providence?

4:09So Providence has really good Italian food. They have like a great North End section, bakeries. El Forno is incredible. Yes. One of Ina's favorite restaurants. Right. You're wearing a hat. I love it. Yes. I'm wearing my bare fricking it has a hat. Also seafood. The coast of Rhode Island is so good for fresh seafood. There's a couple of towns there that I would actually drive when I was in college, like Little Compton. Yep. And there's some great seafood restaurants and it's just so beautiful. Yeah, I know the coast of Rhode Island is a little underrated. Yeah. Maine, Massachusetts, Hamptons, they all get the press.

4:46Rhode Island's so tiny and no one talks about her, but I have so many good memories there. And my sister is a professor at Brown and my niece goes to college there or goes to high school there. So it's just like such a great place for me. It's home. Yeah. Well, you're a designer by trade and a cook at heart. And I got to ask you, let's get into some of your design background. I mean, I've seen the book and photos of you. You've got a really cool aesthetic at your home kitchen, but you've worked in and around kitchen spaces. So like straight up, what's the sickest kitchen you've ever been to? Oh, my gosh.

5:16So this is to me, I love first of all, I love that you said I'm a designer by trade and I cook by heart. I'm like ready to change my bio across the board. So thank you. No, no, it's clear, obviously. So thank you for that. I think for me what would define the sickest kitchen is when someone is able to fully express themselves through how their kitchen functions and is laid out. So I think of people like my friend Molly Boz whose kitchen is so stunning. Her husband Ben is a very good friend of mine for 15 years and that's how I know Molly and her kitchen is like entirely butter yellow. It's wide open.

5:50She talks about how she wants to be able to like entertain and host people and it's so beautiful. um i have a friend actually when i was um finishing writing my manuscript a friend of mine allowed me to go out to his house in the hamptons um to finish the book which was so nice because we were like taking dips in the pool writer's retreat style it was really really sweet and he collects these like portuguese um like sort of like coffee mug bowls and has like thousands of them in his kitchen he built to have like a shelf that goes around the entire perimeter to just display his whole bowl collection and i just like love the specificity of that to really just like kind of take one part of something that you love and design a whole space around it um i also think about carla lally music who i've been in in her kitchen many times and my favorite thing is you walk into her brownstone and the kitchen is the first thing you see yeah and that's a focal point and she films there a lot yeah it's a dream like i want to be able to like be open the front door and I'm right there being like, can I give you something?

6:49Are you hungry? It's so cool. I love New York Apartments where the kitchen is, you know, greeting you when you're there. Yeah, it's amazing. And she also just has so many great systems and ways of storing and housing things. So not to make this like the Bon Appetit special, but those are some kitchens that I think of. Nah, B.A. show. And let's go back to Molly. I'm glad you brought it up. Her crate and barrel drop, her collection is really great. I know. It's good. She's so freaking talented and so has Ben. in my former life I was a creative director and Ben was one of my designers when I lived in Portland, Oregon and he's just beyond, beyond talented.

7:21I actually stole him from another team when I got to the company. I was like, that guy's going to work for me now. And we've been pals and the combo of the two of them is just next level. No, and they have a lot of just shared love of aesthetics and food together. I like that vibe. Can't wait for her book to come out this fall. She'll be on the show. Were you at Wyden or Nike? What were you doing in Portland? I was not, I was like a Jason. I was at a very small design build company. And I was brought in to sort of create the creative arm to do brand experiences for Nike, for other brands. But what was cool is that we can design it and build it in one sort of company, which is really fun.

8:03And I was there for like three years. And probably the most like besides the past three years, probably the most creatively robust period of my life. Because I was just having so much fun. That you got to work alongside Nike, but it was a small shop. Let's talk about Portland food. What do you miss the most? Oh, my gosh. Portland food. Nang's common guy. Yeah. Obviously, like huge. Oh, my gosh. Huge. And explain the chicken dish and what they're doing there. Oh, my gosh. I hope I can explain it correctly. It's like the simplest thing in the world. It's poached chicken. Yeah. It's rice. And then it's cucumbers.

8:36You said it perfectly. Okay, great. And it's a Chinese-style chicken. It's so simple. I mean, that's the Chinese version, but it's not. But it's boiled and fragrant and it's just so clean. So good. And yeah, and I would walk there to the food truck all the time. What else do I love? Ava Jeans opened when I was there, which is so incredible. All I did was eat in Portland. Like it truly was just like, because I wasn't having the best time otherwise. So I sort of just ate. It was part of your fun and your blowing up steam with your food. Yeah, which you can say that about most of my life. But particularly in Portland, I really threw myself into just sort of enjoying the culinary experience there.

9:17And it's really cool. Yeah. Do you miss Portland for any other reasons? Some people. Yeah. But that's about it. You say when you leave a city, you're like, I miss the people. Yeah. Portland was like the one time in my life where I would think I was like truly depressed, which is hard to say because I'm generally a pretty uplifting person. But I learned a lot. I'm glad I lived there because I learned a lot about me as a person. Sure. through that time. Yeah. Let's talk. No, I mean, I like that we tapped into like moving to cities and somebody's not loving them fully. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, and I think we sometimes are reflecting in the most positive way.

9:51I love that city, I love that city, but sometimes cities don't connect with us. I mean, I haven't been to Portland since I left 10 years ago, but I do want to go back. I think I'm ready. Yeah, 10 years, wow. I will be going on my book tour, so. Yeah, you're going to be there. Do you have any plans like where you're going to do it at? We're working on it. Yeah, working on a tour. Well, your book's out in the fall, and we're going to talk about it. Let's eat. Amazing accomplishment. You shared the physical copy. And there's a centerfold in it. There is. It's truly my proudest moment. A centerfold in a cookbook, guys, like really, really rare.

10:23Food is my porn, so it felt correct. It felt correct. So when did you leave the design world, leave the agency world, and become a food guy? So I officially left that job in April of 2021 after a full year of doing sort of my full-time job as a creative director and creating this brand of Grossi Pelosi, like truly growing it into like a food and lifestyle brand, which was never the plan. It just happened. It truly just came from the pandemic, which is wild. Well, you went viral on video, like TikTok and Instagram Reels. You were starting to really create these really iconic and signature shorts.

11:08Well, the vodka sauce was kind of the thing. I also think like it was a little bit more low tech than that. I think that, you know, people were home, didn't know how to be comfortable at home. And I was raised in an Italian Portuguese family where all we did was like stock our pantry, cook meals and talk about the next meal. And I've always created a really beautiful home for me to stay in. so despite all the horrible things that came with the pandemic it was actually really comfortable for me to not leave the house and while I was sort of doing that and sharing that I think a lot of people found me and were like teach me how to do that as well because I've my life has been I don't care about my apartment I don't know how to cook and I want to learn from you so it was less like TikTok really some of that but it was just like sharing good solid recipes and knowledge around how to make a sandwich, how to fry an egg, how to, you know, take really simple ingredients and make something good, if that makes sense.

12:00It makes a lot of sense. And you've really clearly stated, and I love that you did this, that you're not a TikTok guy. Well, I just don't want anyone to go to my TikTok and be like, what the fuck? No, no. I mean, sorry. I mean, I just, yeah, I mean, I wish I was like a TikTok. I'm sort of like a grandma at heart. Listen, it's a total compliment. I feel there's too many TikTok-only projects there, and I love so many creators on the platform. I'm on it every day. Yeah, it's amazing. I'm not shading it. I'm just saying when you look at it holistically that you're into cooking, you have your Portuguese-Italian background, and you have all these levers you can pull, not just one platform.

12:42Yeah, I think it's the storytelling and the human aspect of it for me that has drawn people to me and less I can cut and edit a video, which I wish I could do better and I'm always trying to but I don't know static posts always do better than reels for me it's cool now let's get into dinner parties you you throw them you write about it in your book and so let me ask you first what are you serving at a dinner party that makes them so legend I mean it's always pretty much been about sort of like the Italian Sunday dinner vibe of it all. So I always tell people it's like make a ton of marinara, make eggplant parm for the vegetarians, make meatballs or chicken parm for the people who eat meat.

13:30And then really from there, it's like you can prepare all that stuff ahead. So you're not stressed out. Marinara gets better over days. Right. So make it ahead, freeze it. And then other than that, you just need like a really good salad, maybe some broccoli rabe or some sauteed vegetables and then garlic bread and like that's a dreamy dinner party also like i love to host and entertain and i do like when people stay but i sort of like when people you like feed people so well that they get a little sleepy and they kind of leave yeah before like 10 p.m it's great to be in bed it's part of that like that that food coma strategy of entertaining so dinner parties at my house ideally are like sunday at 4 p.m yeah no four to ten yeah four to ten and it's like mom's tires so it's family style family style everything is sharing and it's it's really rooted in like sort of the family dinners that i had as a child we would go to my grandparents every sunday have dinner um it's just yeah and it shouldn't be stressful no it shouldn't be and i love this take such a take why is a potluck your worst nightmare oh my gosh so this is i don't like being controversial so if you love potlucks by all means keep fucking potlucking i just like there's two things there's two things one thing is like i love experiencing other people's point of views around food i love when someone invites me to dinner and i get to know them who they are what they're interested in by sort of like what they put on the table and i love when it's a complete experience I'm happy to bring food to your house, but I would much rather just sort of see how you pull off the whole meal and learn and talk about it.

15:14So that's kind of like that really gets me excited. I recognize that a lot of people can't throw a dinner party for eight people by paying for all the food themselves and all that. So that's fine. But that really gets me excited. Second thing is I just think about my stomach and the combo. Yeah. A potluck to me means like there's no point of view. And so you might get 10 different dishes that just don't sit well together. And it kind of just gives me a lot of anxiety. And I'm not talking about like Thanksgiving. Like Thanksgiving, I'm happy for people. That's our like national potluck. Yeah, like bring some Thanksgiving food.

15:50Like we get it. But like a true potluck where it's like bring whatever and we're all just going to eat it is like just so the last meal that I want to be invited to. Does that make sense? It does. It's a great explanation. And you're not shading. it also gives me a lot of gas. Yeah. It's like too many different things that maybe aren't cooked properly. I know the agita is just, there's not enough Prilosec in the world for me to deal. I love that. Now, I have to ask you where you've been going out in New York because we have a lot of our listeners are coming to the city this summer and you have a great point of view.

16:22So where have you been going? Okay, so I have to apologize to people who have followed me for a while because these answers are going to be so predictable. But I will tell you, I am a creature of habit, which is part of my family. I complained about it when I was a kid. We would go to all the same places, but now I do that as an adult. So Via Carota is like a dream. Malaparte, Malatesta, two like sister restaurants in the West Village have great Italian, super easy, super fun. Places like Ciao Gloria has the best breakfast sandwich and pastries in the city, Brooklyn. I love the sort of like Servo's Hearts and The Fly, that family of restaurants.

17:02Bernie's in Brooklyn is great. Those are kind of my like go-to meal. I love a steakhouse. I love Keen's. I love Gage and Tolner. These are great. And I have to ask you about Via Corroda. We've had the chefs on for their book. Yeah, yeah, their book's so stunning. Really stunning book. It's still good. I asked that Why? No, it's not a shade It's just It's been so Talked about forever Why does that mean It wouldn't be good? It's not about it being Not good or good Okay Because I know I don't go there But it just It sucks a lot of oxygen Out of the room When I feel like Everyone talks about Via Crota But you're obviously A fan of it You go there all the time Yeah So I want to hear it From a regular Yeah Versus Like it being on like a media list in airmail, which I feel like it ultimately becomes just name checked.

18:00But you're there and you love it. Yeah. And I've been going. I lived in the West Village when I moved here 10 years ago and I was going there then. So I feel like because I in the same way, I love Jack's by Frida because I've been going there for 10 years. Totally, man. And that room, that place, like everyone goes there and everyone's like, I can't believe you go there. And I'm like, it's delicious. I'm sorry that it got a buzz, but like I actually like it and I know what's on the menu and I'm excited to go there. And you're kind of saying that about Vietcourt a little bit too. You're like, Matt, stop being a jerk about Viacrotta.

18:27Well, no, because like I am every summer, I'm like, when are the zucchini sticks coming back? The sticks, they're not called sticks, whatever they are. The fried zucchini sticks coming back on the menu at Viacrotta. Like I know what's happening. I know it's dependable. I know they have like the salad I want. I know they have, I actually never get pasta there. I always get like all the vegetables. I don't know. I just know what to expect. And I really like that. And I think that's why I go to a lot of the same restaurants. I do love to try new places, but nine times out of ten, I just like to go to a place where I know what I'm going to get.

18:58Really cool. I'm the same way with French Louie on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. I go there. That's the place I just go to all the time. Yeah, yeah. I haven't been there, but my boyfriend used to be a server at Buttermilk Channel, which is her sister restaurant. Yeah, I used to live right by there. Those are my guys. Colony over there is really good, too. Great neighborhood for restaurants, but I think I'm vibing with Via Corotta is like your French Louie, and you know what's on the menu. It's predictable. Yeah. I love it. And I mean, I like the consistency and repetition is great about restaurants or going to restaurants.

19:30I mean, I think they have a buzz for a reason. Bad restaurants don't get that kind of buzz. It can be sort of exhausting. I do think it is fun to be like, oh, Julianne Moore is over there. Like, you know, it's cute. You tapped into that element, which I think is really, really important that it definitely has a cool crowd. Oh, yeah. And not just cool, but like unique. Totally, totally. celebrity. Very much. And I'll admit to that too. I mean, that's fun, but I've been going there for long enough that that wasn't the case when I was going there originally. So let's talk about Let's Eat. What are you saying with the book?

20:03I think for me, if I've learned anything over the past three years, like what people want is what I've been doing my whole life, which is like creating recipes that are inspired by my life experience, by my family, by my memories. They're really simple. They're really tasty. And they're rooted in kind of like entertaining. So helping people do the simple things that are going to allow them to throw a great dinner party or have a brunch and not make things too complicated. And also have flavor profiles that are like just kind of classic. There's a bit of fun here and there. But I'm a grocery store girl.

20:42Like I shop at the supermarket. I do love a farmer's market. I go to a farmer's market all the time. And I do go to specialty stores. But there's so many things in the book. Like I have a whole chapter of sort of homemade sauces, toppings and spreads. And in every recipe where I call for them, I also tell you what the store bought substitution is. So it's really important for me that people can enter the book at any level, can learn about my family and my story, tell a few jokes, make them laugh. Yeah, there's definitely a good voice in there. It definitely has your personality. obviously you wrote it.

21:14The personality I think is kind of my it's my differentiator. Everyone has a you know a cacio e pepe recipe or a vodka like there's so many the recipes like everyone has a version of something that I'm making and my goal isn't to sort of like reinvent the wheel. I just want really good classics and throw a few little tips and fun tricks in. I love your family pasta salad recipe. What makes a great pasta salad? Um, I think there's a couple of things. I think obviously like the ingredients, right? Like I think pasta salad should be like salty. They should have some vegetables in them, hopefully.

21:54Yeah. If we're going to call them a salad. I think South Brooklyn maybe stretches it sometimes. There's usually just like meat and pasta there. Exactly. Maybe some cheese. I mean, my Pelosi family pasta salad is sort of very meaty. But I think, I mean, I've been making so many pasta salad recipes because people love them. And I think it's a lot about ratios. So I think it's like how much pasta, how much of everything else. And then also the dressing, right? Like pasta is going to soak up the dressing over time. So it needs the pasta salad needs to be like the perfect amount of like wet. Yeah. If that makes sense.

22:28No, definitely. I think a too dry pasta salad, like if it's a spiral pasta shape, it's like you're just, it's just pasta. and it's dry and like, or it's just chunks of meat and dry. So you need that level of wetness. Yeah, and I'm so obsessed with like salads not being soggy. So it's a really tough balance, but you always have, you know, you got to take the pasta salad out of the fridge before you serve it, let it warm up a little, let the oils kind of like come back to life and then give it a couple stirs and you should be good. Oh my God, listener, let that soak in, pun intended. Like bring it out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before you serve it.

23:06Yeah, and it's also probably summer. so it's going to heat up pretty quick. You don't want it warm. You just want the congealed oils from the dressing to sort of come back to life. Toss, toss, toss. You also don't want, if your pasta salad has lettuce in it or arugula, put that in right before you serve it. Okay. You have a section about the big Italian sandwich and it is the centerfold we speak of. I love that. She's big and she's pervy. Pervy. And curvy. Pervy and curvy sandwiches. I love that. Okay, let's talk about dressing. I have a take. olive oil or mayonnaise or both oh i'm such a both like if there's one thing you need to know about me this this sandwich has two different kinds of olives like it's like just so stupid um it has you know uh aioli or mayo whichever direction you go in it's got you know the vinegar it's got the castle vetrano's it's got giardiniera like it's got everything in it the let you know it just it's doing the most and I'm always happy if people want to reduce a little or add a little make it their own but I just think that like the Italian sandwich is just such a staple and as I say in the book I think I say it serves one to six people I know you do it's funny I love that it truly is an individual experience I mean so I'm so happy we agree my take is obviously olive oil vinegar and mayonnaise because when you get that beautiful sandwich and then you bite into it and it's only vinegar and a little bit of olive oil, fuck that, man.

24:37Absolutely not. You've got to get, like, the condiments are the most important part. I mean, otherwise it's like it's a bunch of delicious ingredients, but it's very dry. Yeah, that was a really fun one to develop and test, I will tell you. So, Dan, we often don't talk about the last recipe in cookbooks. We skim through them, we being podcast hosts who might not be prepared. But we here at This Is Taste prepare, and on page 283, your final recipe in the book is sabaglione. What is it? Let's give it some shine. Let's give it its flowers. So a couple things about this recipe. One, I think when you're hosting a dinner party, dessert can be an afterthought.

25:21And I always tell people all you need is like some fresh berries and maybe some whipped cream or some ice cream, and you're good. even Greek yogurt, but I wanted to create something that felt just as easy and effortless, but maybe just like a slightly more special version of that. And so this is just the creamiest, dreamiest sort of like pile of whipped cream, tons of eggs. And by the way, whipped cream is not traditional, but I added in because it is inspired by the strawberries and whipped cream at the Cheesecake Factory. I thought you were going to say Wimbledon, but you're like, no, the Cheesecake Factory.

26:00No, the Goblet of Strawberries Whipped Cream at the Cheesecake Factory is such an important dish to me. I love the Cheesecake Factory, but that is my go-to dessert there. It's not the cheesecake, although I do have a really good cheesecake recipe in the book. Anyways, and I actually told my boyfriend that I loved him for the first time while eating the Goblet of Strawberries Whipped Cream at the Cheesecake Factory. so when I was thinking about how to make a really beautiful zabaillon which is like cream and egg and marsala I was thinking like okay how can I make this like easier for someone at home because it can be a little tricky so we added some whipped cream to it and it just gives it like the perfect texture so to me it was like a full circle moment of like the goblet of strawberries and whipped cream telling my boyfriend I love him how much I love the Cheesecake Factory easy like something you could make ahead for dessert like great great great Dan, that's such a sweet story.

26:52I love that. I mean, and Cheesecake Factory, we've had the executive chef on the show in the past. Was it the one in Queens? No, it was the one in Jersey City. Jersey City. Yeah. That one's good. Yeah. So this goblet of cream and berries, that's it. There's nothing. It's just cream. Well, that's the dessert of the cheesecake. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's delicious. I mean, I'm sure there's five million things in their whipped cream because it's not just like whipped cream. That's kind of baller. But that's kind of why this inspired my version of the Zobo. By the way, Via Corona has an incredible version of this on their recipe.