Once you get past the cute framing (“pineapple on pizza: you either love it or hate it, but know Italians see it as an affront, right?”), this looks like a stalking horse to legitimise the idea of “religious freedom” rights, like those of pharmacists to refuse to sell birth control.
Yeah, I hate pineapple on pizza too, but the restaurant sells it, so the chef better fucking make it
The ruling also detailed an incident at work in April this year where Tamburella fractured bones in his right hand when he struck a metal hand rail.
Forget the pineapple - dude has anger issues and shouldn’t be running a kitchen.
Yes, that was in the title of the post
Italian chef
ItalianchefFTFY
He’s an idiot, it’s delicious.
“But-a, de pine-a apple ees not endemic to eetalia!”
Yeah and neither is the tomato, spaghetti slurper. Get good.
I will have you know as aitilian pizzeria chef from a fancy Italian restaurant that used to make a couple hundred pies a day by hand from scratch… We’re not all charictures. Prosciutto, pineapple and olives are where it’s at. The trick to good pineapple pizza is to not cook the pineapple. It goes on after the pie comes out. Then you have cold juicy pineapple dripping all over the salty olives and ham. 🍕
Yep, tomatoes and potatoes. And almost every single bean.
There were plenty of beans they had access to.
For some reason I found this paragraph extremely funny
On the chef’s LinkedIn profile, he describes himself as someone who, throughout his career, has focused on “delivering exceptional food” and “improving business performance”.
I didn’t build a pizza company to follow the crowd.
I built it to ask the hard questions.
What if we took a perfectly good pizza… and put pineapple on it?
We considered it. We modeled it. We held a 14-hour strategy session with the team focused on improving our business performance.
And then we made the courageous decision to say no.
Not because pineapple is bad. Pineapple is a beautiful fruit. A triumph of nature. A tiny tropical sun with a silly green hat.
But on my pizza? It’s not aligned with our core values.
As an Italian chef, I believe in innovation x tradition. I believe in disruption and the classics. I believe in pushing boundaries and punching metal stuff.
We’re not anti-pineapple. We’re pro-purpose.
And our purpose is to make pizza that makes your nonna nod once, slowly, without saying a word. Makes her feel heat in her loins and understand her connections to the Cesars.
That’s the vision. That’s the mission. That’s true Italian pizza.
#Leadership #Innovation #TruePizza #Purpose #NoPineapple
You’re absolutely right! And that’s beautiful.
Kitchen serves Caesar salad that was created 100 years ago in Tijuana by Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini when his hotel restaurant was short on ingredients.
It also serves “Kilpatrick”, which is oysters served with “Grilled finely chopped bacon with Worcestershire, BBQ, Dijon, ketchup, Tabasco, lemon juice and smoked paprika”.
Precursors to pizza used things like dates and other fruits as toppings.
The menu has meat all over it, which to me reads more like an Italian-American thing where meat over here was super cheap and thus became increasingly incorporated into Italian dishes.
And of course modern pizza uses a key ingredient not even available until it was brought back from the New World.
But sure, this is a step too far and an affront to his culture.
There is literally a traditional Neapolitan pizza with figs and cheese on it.
Wait until this guy hears how many pizzarias are run by Greek folks, rather than Italians. His heart will explode, I’m sure.
We have a pretty large amount of pizzarias owned by people with turkish roots here too! They often also offer Kebap, and some even provide Kebap Pizza.
Where do I find one of those?
Searching for “Turkish pizza near me” find pizzerias that also sell gyros. The ones I tried didn’t have any different pizza toppings listed and it’s not like I can check every menu
Kebap Pizza.
OK I need this in my life
Eh, i personally like either a pizza with all its cheesy & tomato & oregano goodness or kebap with it’s own satisfying taste. Pizza dough goes better with ingredients that don’t tend to dry out as much in an pizza oven, sadly. Although, thinking about it again, a kebap Calzone sounds awesome.
Greeks mogging Romans once again.
The Romans came in and saved the Greeks’ asses twice with no strings attached just because they were the Greeks’ fanboys. Romans mogged the everloving fuck out of the Greeks.
Computer, define “mogged”
… I’m sorry, for your own safety I can not provide you with that information.
Verb; To assert ones dominance.
“Greeks are Turks that think they are Italians.”
Italians: “You can’t put fruit on pizza!!1!”
Tomatoes: -_-
Tomatoes are fruit, yes. Botanically.
Here is a list of botanical fruits: tomato, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, butternut squash, pumpkin, eggplant, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, habanero pepper, poblano pepper, cayenne pepper, serrano pepper, banana pepper, avocado, olive
Tomato is botanically a fruit, and culinarily a vegetable. Vegetables are not a botanical classification. Botanical classifications are often surprising - a strawberry is not a botanical berry, for example, but culinarily it is.
Yeah probably cause they don’t wanna yell “prep the accessory fruits” 10 times a shift.
Tomatoes aren’t Italian.
American at Apple pie
Apple pie’s British actually
But sure, this is a step too far
Cuisine is an element of culture and so a socially-defined thing. Few would argue that espresso isn’t a part of Italian cuisine, but it was only really invented in the 1930s (coffee had been consumed in Italy for long before that, of course). Ciabatta was invented in 1982 and I’m sure most Italians would be fine with serving that.
But pineapple on pizza is not just not part of the socially-defined Italian cuisine; it’s an antithesis to it! It’s an emblem to everyone of how you can take something that is part of a cuisine (pizza) and do something to it that is completely at odds with it. Whether you like pineapple on pizza or not, that should be clear.
So, it shouldn’t be surprising that some people feel strongly enough about what is and isn’t part of their cuisine and draw the line there. In my experience, many Italians do feel very strongly about their cuisine, more so than any other nationality I’ve talked to about food. Try asking some what they think about spaghetti and meatballs for an example that seems innocuous to most non-Italians.
I respect such viewpoints but I do think there are plenty of people who hold them without really understanding them - who don’t realise how malleable cultural elements like cuisine are and who think they’re actually upholding an objective and immutable standard. That’s clearly wrong, but just because what is part of a cuisine changes doesn’t mean everything is part of a cuisine.
For restaurants there’s a decision to make - do you stick to what you hold to be the authentic cuisine, or do something more accommodating of globalised expectations? There’s room for both… and individual cooks who aren’t the restaurant owner or whatever probably don’t get to make the call.
Good points. But I would argue that pizza more than almost any dish (maybe rivaled by hamburgers?) has far transcended its roots and become a true global phenomenon.
“Hawaiian” pizza, generally considered the origin of pineapple as a topping, started in Canada in 1962*. That’s almost 65 years ago and 20 years older than your example of Ciabatta.
[*] Or possibly Portland, OR in 1957.
Canada in 1962
And bear in mind that pizza only became international basically right after WWII, so if pineapple pizza was invented today, pizza would have only started becoming known to most in, say, North America in like 2013 or so.
It blows my mind how quickly it spread and became just something normal.
I think that’s one reason I’m perfectly fine with the places that do things like put corn on it. lol
Food is meant to be enjoyed. And nourish, but hopefully pleasantly so.
Unarguably it’s a global phenomenon. And personally I don’t greatly value authenticity - or adherence to a particularly canonical cuisine - but changes to a cuisine’s canon don’t just happen due to time passed; that was really my point with the ciabatta example, that it is accepted in spite of being very recent. I haven’t asked anyone explicitly about ciabatta, but I would guess that even though it happened recently, it’d be accepted by most Italians, even those who are fairly strict about what counts as authentic, as Italian cuisine.
Why, even though it’s so recent? Well, in the end it’s about social agreement, not rules, but there are probably some reasons that go into that agreement: it was developed in Italy; it has similarities to existing cuisine; those similarities were consciously developed; it doesn’t violate any implicit expectations in the existing cuisine. Hawaiian pizza certainly doesn’t share those aspects. That doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be accepted, but it means it’s harder.
To take another example, sandwiches are an accepted part of British cuisine, and have also well and truly transcended those roots and become global. But that doesn’t mean that banh mi are part of British cuisine!
It gets worse:
I don’t have a strong opinion about pineapple on pizza. Had it as a kid and thought it was ok, but it’s not something I seek out as an adult. But this picture elicited some kinda primal revulsion in me. I’d try it, but I’d have to close my eyes.
Well, alright, although my initial reaction is certainly disgust… I do like pineapple on pizza - like… very rarely. Maybe a half dozen times in my life and I’m over 50. It’s not what I want when I want pizza, but it can be tasty.
So I mean… someone made that and is standing by it as tasty. I dunno. I might give it a go. There’s no way it’ll beat a really good cheese pizza, or I really love piling up all the meats, or like even a good one with diced tomato, bacon, cheddar - I love a ton of different sets of toppings… But yeah, I’d give it a go. And at least I could say it was surprisingly alright, or terrible and have a story to tell (“I once ate kiwifruit on pizza and oh man it was terrible” lol)
The best pizza is cheese. The second best is pineapple, pepperoni, and jalapeno.
Chicken, tomato, jalapeno, and pineapple.
Bacon, ham, pineapple, and banana peppers. Even Dominos got this right. Throw in some red onion slices if you are feeling flavorful.
I like a pizza with a bunch of toppings, or interesting toppings. But I will absolutely admit that the way to judge a pizza is by just cheese. If a place gets that right, it’ll probably all be good, and you really can’t beat a great cheese pizza.
But there’s something to be said for one that’s moderately good and just absolutely weighed down with delicious stuff on there. :)
I mean, you aren’t eating it though, and NGL pineapple on pizza is fantastic, especially with some bacon and onion.
If I’m a sculpter and get a commission, I don’t really care what they want me to make. It’s their property, my paycheck
Jalapeno, pepperoni and pineapple is fire. If you can get dried or candied pineapple it’s better than canned on a pizza. Drying it out first gives it a chance to take on a bit of char and it’s genuinely delightful.
I think the prevalence of canned pineapple is a big part of the problem. Most canned stuff just isn’t all that good on pizza.
Dry it out on some kitchen roll before you put it on, really helps.
Dickbutt. I want a 12 foot tall granite Dickbutt to drop in my Wyoming property. I want alien archeologists to discover it thousands of years from now and proceed to spend decades debating it.
Pineapple salsa with cilantro, peppers. Onion, too, is amazing
I got a paywall, so here’s another article.
Short version. Chef was on an employment visa, and had allegedly refused to make it on several cases. Owner was annoyed but sympathetic as he doesn’t really like it either, but they had a large group (estimated AU$15k) event, and the paying customer had requested ham and pineapple pizza. Chef refused. Owner fired him but waited as long as possible to inform Immigration, hoping the final visa would come through. Chef claimed it was retaliation “partly” over a broken hand, but tribunal said he’d waited too long to bring it up. Eventually, restaurant closed but chef found other work and is still in the country.
Another article says there were other things, “including allegations relating to foul language, communication issues and escalating frustration at work.” Sounds like the chef was a bit of a cliched chef personality, to be honest, and maybe not talented enough to pull that act off. If the restaurant is also not doing well, then I could see the “Italians must not put pineapple on pizza” thing being a lot less cute if it messed up a big event.
Sounds like the chef was a bit of a cliched chef personality
That’s just standard Italian behaviour, you should see the shade a Bolognan turns when you bring up spaghetti bolognese.
What a cunt.
Tomatoes are from the New World so I hope he also refuses to put marinara sauce on his pizza. Otherwise he’s just a hypocritical dickhead.
Italian culture began in 1945. Prior to that it was something else we don’t talk about that. Also 1492 counts but not the other things that someone did. Just the discovery part. Which totally happened and it was totally a real discovery and not some dipshit getting lost. Which is why the Americas are named after an Italian. Just not that Italian. That’s how gracious he was.
While I agree with the thrust of your comment, as far as I’m aware Columbus believed the world was round, and the reason he called it the West Indies (which… should have been the East Indies, but whatever) was because he thought the earth was much smaller than it is. If the Americas hadn’t been there, he would have absolutely died in the Pacific Ocean well before reaching land.
So there’s plenty to dislike him for, but he wasn’t so much lost as just wrong about the size of the earth. I mean, I guess that makes him lost sorta. Eh. I’m just amused at the mistake.
Who says he didn’t want to put it on because it’s from the new world? I wrote my full thoughts here
Correct… in the end, this is just one of those miserable humans who will just spread their misery around until they die
Dudes not in Italy anymore. In Italy they do that shit all the time, but it’s their home, and if I’m visiting I’m the guest and will order on menu and follow their insane food rules.
Outside though? You don’t own the restaurant, you have no say. The correct option was to quit.
Because I don’t like something, you’re not allowed to like it either.
That’s basically how fear for change, fear for foreigners, fear for people with another skin colour, fear for languages and all other kinds of fear work, like fear for pineapple.
Egypt was making similar stuff to pizza long before Italy. Italy didn’t even have tomatoes to make “pizza” until they were imported from America.
Fire that cook
I understand an Italian not liking it but this is the customer ordering it.
Nah man. He’s in the pineapple capital of Australia. If I go to Italy and order pineapple and ham on pizza, sure, I’m in the wrong. That’s not a cultural thing they do there.
But this dude wasn’t in Italy. He was in a place where pineapple is insanely popular. The culture there is to put pineapple on things. They put pineapple in places you’d never expect pineapple to be because that’s what you do when you have a lot of fresh pineapple. He lives there. He knows that. He’s a chef, he should know better.
Now excuse me, I’m going to make a pineapple canoli because that sounds dope.
Nah man. He’s in the pineapple capital of Australia. If I go to Italy and order pineapple and ham on pizza, sure, I’m in the wrong. That’s not a cultural thing they do there.
You can absolutely get pizza Hawaii in Italy. I know a couple of Italian food elitists but they only care about having the right dough, thickness and baking method, not the toppings.
Yeah it’s not like the original Italian pizza had fruit on it or anything…
