Home Gastronomy Origin of pizza with pineapple, the most controversial

Origin of pizza with pineapple, the most controversial

It is surely one of the pizzas more to debate among consumers, for or against always eating it according to personal taste. The one who does not understand intermediate points: either you love her or you hate her. But do you know what the origin of pizza with pineapple? Here we are going to reveal it to you along with the entire history of this controversial plate of fast food that integrates the tropical fruit with the typical ingredients of the recipe and even york ham. It is also known as Hawaiian, but behind its birth there is much more. Very attentive because knowing delicacy well will not leave you indifferent, whether you are a lover or a 'haters'.

Neither in Hawaii nor in Italy, who created this pizza?

History origin of pizza with pineapple It is quite curious and difficult to intuit because it has no relationship either with the cradle region of the ingredient that generates so much controversy or with Italy. Even the fact that it is known as Hawaiian does not link it to the American paradise destination. With these premises completely discarded, his birthplace does come a little closer to America. Although it is located much further north of the continent, compared to the southern lands, where the pineapple is native. A tropical fruit that made its way into the Italian recipe specifically in Ontario (Canada), back in the decade of the 60.

The owner of a place called Satellite Restaurant He had the original idea of ​​adding this element, without being able to imagine what he was going to mess with in the long term. Once the amazing pizza spread around the globe, it began to earn the good or the notoriety, depending on the palates that were tasting it. Now, who was that chef and how did he come up with such a wonder or 'crime', depending on taste? His name was Sam panopoulos, a Greek settled in Canadian territory until his death in 2017. The origin of pizza with pineapple was his great contribution to the gastronomy, although at that time the most traditional diners of the dish would not have allowed him to innovate in such a way.

This was the origin of pizza with pineapple

Indeed, as a result of innovation arose the controversial recipe, which in those years was still to be completed. Now it is unthinkable to imagine a pizza without dough and tomato sauce, but this union was almost exotic, it could hardly be found in the country. Hence Panopoulos -who had delighted in the delicacy on a trip to Nápoles- buy a small oven in Chatham (southwest of Ontario) and began offering portions. With all kinds of ingredients, from pepperoni even mushrooms.

Even those foods, it was all normal, but a few years later he decided to try the yellow tropical fruit for sheer "fun." He had watched different flavors mix in the more Asian successfully, so he wanted to try. That he confessed to the with the BBC in an interview in which he also specified that he wanted "to see how it was going to be tasted by the public." That flavor combination -the sweet pineapple and salty ham- it was all a success. Although little by little with the passage of time to some it seemed a sin.

origin of pizza with pineapple
Pizza with pineapple

So why is it called Hawaiian?

Another curiosity comes from the name with which it became popular after the origin of pizza with pineapple. It turns out that the Greek chef used in his first experiments a Hawaiian brand that sold said canned fruit. It should be remembered that in 1959, Hawai became a state of USA and their tropical foods spread throughout North America. Therefore, he ended up associating this nationality with a product that "liked because in those days no one was mixing sweet and sour." You could innovate, Panopoulos He did it and succeeded. Later, as the franchises Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, this type of pizza also managed to place itself in the paper offered by those establishments. In the end it was one more ingredient, whose price was not expensive and that could find followers among consumers.

Reason for the popular debate

But the passing of the years and the decades ended up turning the Hawaiian Pizza in target of criticism, those of his detractors. Not just because they don't like fusion anymore sweet salty, but because it is considered an aberrational mixture. Why? There are several arguments that these 'haters', although the one most listened to and read on social networks today is linked to little respect for tradition Canonical of the Neapolitan recipe. Another that is popularized alleges that it is "a different variety or species" of pizza, closer to a "dessert»Than to a lunch or dinner.

It seems that integrating fruit into a salty preparation does not convince (and does horrify) some. Of course, others find it an authentic masterpiece. The one created by a humble chef who -without patent his idea- he was the great architect of the origin of pizza with pineapple. Disgusting or delicious, there it is, competing with other varieties that, of course, are not lucky enough to be as famous as she is. So good, there we leave the question, Lover or detractor? 

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