Pizza and pineapple - yes or no?

"that conversation never ends well, and in fact never really ends."

Itamar Srulovich/The Guardian

It's interesting how some foods create such division that you get notable people - Iceland's prime-minister, who said he would ban it if he could, any number of celebrities from Paris Hilton to Stanley Tucci, Canada's prime minister - "I have a pineapple and I have a pizza. And I stand behind this delicious Southwestern Ontario creation." Yes you got that right - a Canadian invention. It's not even American - the Hawaiian connection is because the orginal used a tin of American pineapple.

This is the man who started the war. His name is - well was, as he died in 2017 aged 83 - Sam Panopoulos a Canadian of Greek origin - not even Italian, who with his brothers ran a restaurant in a town in Ontario Canada, which sold Chinese food, hamburgers and the like. One day in 1962 they were playing around with new flavours for the pizzas they had just introduced to the menu, and Sam grabbed the tin of pineapple and added it to a pizza with ham and bacon. Sort of just because, but also because of the sweet and sour influence of the Chinese food they cooked. And truth to say - why not? After all there are many dishes - particularly today that put together sweet and salt - as The Observer says:

"Salt, fat, acid and sugar – what’s not to like?"

But this is no instant success story. There was no fanfare about it and it took a while for the local population to appreciate it. But appreciate it they eventually did, the word spread - how does that happen as this was long before the internet? - and it is now made throughout the world. Apparently Australians are now the biggest fans with it being the fourth most popular pizza sold here - well in 2018 it was. The UK is not far behind - or America - of course.

A true fusion food that continues to grow in popularity - and hate. Rachel Cooke of The Guardian, at least gives a reason other than just no don't do it, explaining that pineapple is:

"a fruit that pulls off the rare feat of being at once both too tart and too sweet, and which overwhelms whatever happens to be in its path." Rachel Cooke/The Guardian

You really have to wonder why there is such hate. I suppose a portion of the hate might come from Italians who cling to tradition, which is marginally ironic as it was Christopher Columbus - an Italian - who brought the pineapple to Europe, where it became very popular with the wealthy who liked to eat it at breakfast - with ham.

In Norwich in England, one pizza place, hates the idea of Hawaiian pizza so much that they agreed to put it on their menu, but charged £100 (AU$204.16) for it! I imagine they didn't sell many.

But what about the rest of us? I mean just look at the weird things that happen on TikTok which do not inspire anywhere near the hatred, other than condescending remarks from mostly oldies that fundamentally say -"oh well what can you expect from TikTok". Or at the other end of the scale look at the equally weird things that chefs like Heston Blumenthal do with food. They are applauded for their experiments. And experiments they are - which every now and then come off. Maybe it's because pizza is fundamentally a lower class food - it's cheap and delicious - and maybe this end of the market get as invested in their favourite foods as they do in the sports they support with intense fervour. It's been around for a long time now however, so you would think that they would have adapted by now.

And the pizza that I chose for my header photograph is not a gourmet version it's a Dominos Hawaiian pizza, with Dominos claiming back in 2018 that they sold 5,744,110 Hawaiian pizzas. It's probably more today.

However, the times they are a-changing. In Naples - pizza capital of the world - a top pizza maker - Gino Sorbillo - whose fame is so great in the pizza world he now has 21 locations around the world - came up with this Margherita con Ananas which:

"costs 7 euros ($7.70). But this isn’t your regular Hawaiian: it is a pizza bianca, denuded of its tomato layer, sprinkled with no fewer than three types of cheese, with the pineapple cooked twice for a caramelized feel." Julia Buckley/CNN Travel

Why no tomato? Well Sorbillo explains:

“That’s another fruit – with two fruits, which both have acidity it wouldn’t be a good product, ... Instead, I put three smoked cheeses on, and it changes the pizza, becomes a different taste.”

So I tried to find some different pineapple pizzas and found just a few that you might possibly like to try: Gourmet Hawaiian pizza with prosciutto and caramelised pineapple - You Plate It which adds some chilli jam - yes that might work; Hawaiian pizza with sweet potato 'ham' - Sam Parish (Coutts)/delicious.; Prosciutto pizza with pineapple salsa - Matt Moran/delicious.; Ham and pineapple pizza - Chef Joe/Gozny the pineapple is puréed for this one and added right at the end; Pineapple and pancetta Detroit-style pizza - Gozny

Then there are a whole lot of associated things - muffins and so on, of which I chose three; Hawaiian garlic bread pizza - Michelle Southan/Coles - which is a 'cheat' recipe advertising various Coles products like garlic bread, and which Coles introduces thus:

"Nothing brings back childhood memories like Hawaiian pizza and garlic bread. So why not combine the both of them?" Coles

Hawaiian pizza twists - Amira Georgy/Taste and Hawaiian pizza scrolls/Coles

Why not experiment? Pineapple and ham are really not such a weird combination after all, although so far it's not something that I have particularly liked. There are much worse things on offer out there - and as Gino Sorbillo - that Naples pizza guru says:

"why are you offended? Nobody is forcing you to buy it."

Or make it - interestingly Jamie doesn't have a recipe. I suspect that in spite of his working class origins he's not a fan.

YEARS GONE BY

October 4

2024 - Bulgogi

2023 - The food curriculum - language

2022 - The kitchen dilemma

2021 - Nothing

2020 - Missing

2019 - What is matcha?

2018 - Coconut oil - who is right?

2017 - Mashed potatoes - simple or fancy?

2016 - Prawn pathia