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In 1962, a Greek restaurant owner by the name of Sam Panopoulos threw caution to the wind. He was running a restaurant with his brothers in Ontario, Canada, and decided to shake the culinary world by adding pineapple to pizza.
Since then, the Hawaiian pizza – not named after the US state but the canned pineapple from Hawaiian Pineapple Company – has become the heated debate that refuses to die, one which divides friend groups when ordering an Italian classic.
Does pineapple belong on pizza?
A quick poll in the Euronews office reveals that the majority of respondents don’t mind a cheeky Hawaiian from time to time – whilst acknowledging that they’d never dare ask for one in Italy, where the sweet tropical topping is considered a heresy.
To prove the sacrilegious point, an Italian chef has recently gone viral for refusing to serve ham and pineapple pizza in an Australian restaurant, leading him to be fired from his job.
The Brisbane-based chef, Davide Tamburella, said it was “an insult to his culture” – according to Australia’s Fair Work Commission ruling. It was the third time in four years he had refused the request to make a Hawaiian, and he previously requested his boss to “check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza”.
His refusal to add the controversial topping led him to be fired from the (now-closed) La Costa Restaurant and Bar in May. Tamburella’s bosses also raised concerns about his alleged use of foul language, “escalation of frustration in the workplace” and his communication style.
The dismissal led Tamburella to Australia’s national workplace tribunal with the claim he was unfairly dismissed from his job.
Now, it has been reported that the disgruntled chef has lost his legal battle, as Australia’s workplace tribunal has dismissed his unfair dismissal claim. The commission threw out his case because it did not meet the criteria and he had lodged a complaint too late.
Tamburella’s former boss, Elliot Ingram, said that while pineapple on pizza wasn’t his “absolute” favourite, he was not “going to turn (his) nose up at it, that’s for sure.” He also told British outlet Daily Mail that there was “more to this story than a pizza topping.”
La Costa closed in July when its lease expired, with Ingram citing the high cost of doing business in Fortitude Valley. According to his LinkedIn profile, Tamburella is now working as head chef at a restaurant called Don Gino in Brisbane’s West End.
In case you were wondering, we checked. There is no pineapple on the pizza menu.