Pizza oven, teachers, and August weather. That’s what Dr. Druggan needs to start off a great school year, appreciating everyone’s hard work.
You may know our Head of School likes pizza, but you probably do not know his journey to becoming the pizza chef he is today.
It all started in Italy, where he was teaching at the American School of Milan, and he met his wife. His wife and her family are Italian, so he was the only one who was not Italian and did not want to sit around the table talking Italian politics. His father-in-law shares the keys to a great pizza. This is how he started his journey into the importance of breaking bread. With his father in the construction world, he put both inspirations together, making pizza ovens.
His father was surprised he could actually build something like a pizza oven that could stay up. Dr. Druggan said, “I never learned all the things he knew about welding and fixing machines, but I learned some. And so when we built our first oven, he was surprised that I could actually do something that well.”
His father-in-law was surprised by how good his pizza-making was and said that he was the best pizza maker in the family, critiquing his pizza-making skills with being Italian himself. Having small family events, making around twelve pizzas, has now turned into something even bigger, with bigger events and more pizzas being made. He eventually made his first oven in his home in Western Pennsylvania in 2002. He’s picked up a thing or two since then, though, stating, “The first oven we built from scratch is in my parents’ backyard in western Pennsylvania. And I think every oven is a little bit unique, like the one in the Jennings house; my wife and I built that one. The outside of them all looks a little bit different, so we put a slate roof on it to match the Jennings house, but the inside is always the same. The whole key measurement is that the height of the dome is a sixteen-to-nine ratio to the height of the door, so it forces the heat down, out, and up the chimney, so that you get the floor and the top are both seven hundred degrees. So there’s a science behind the construction, and I read about it in a book.”
Now he brings his hobby to SCH, making pizzas for coaches, trainers, faculty, seniors, and other members of the community. He loves being able to cook and make an impact on people’s lives through food. “When I was in Indonesia, in Jakarta, we had some colleagues who were in prison for something they didn’t do, and one of them had children, and we needed to raise money to put these kids into a private school, because in the public school, they were getting bullied because their father was accused of something. So, we did a fundraiser and invited people we knew had resources. We could take fifty people an hour. We say, pay for whatever you think the pizza is worth. And all the money that we raise is going to go to pay for these kids to go to school. We raised $100,000 in one night. Then all the money went to pay for these kids to go to school.”
Currently, Druggan has finished making pizza ovens, since he has made ovens wherever he has lived. He wants to pass this tradition down to his children and tell them the importance of being together and sharing a meal.
“His wife, Pia Mrs. Druggan, is from Italy, so I feel like I’m getting that authentic Italian cooking experience when I’m cooking with them,” said Roman McNichols, whose Mom is Dr. Druggan’s Assistant.
