Fact #16 - Answer

Love it or hate it, pineapple on pizza is one of the great culinary debates that divides families across the globe. But who woke up one day and thought, I wonder what a pizza would taste like if I put some fruit on it?

Cue Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-born immigrant living in Canada. Sam and his brothers owned a restaurant in Ontario. After a recent trip to Naples in Italy (the birthplace of pizza), Sam added the new dish to the menu. At the time, there were three main toppings: mushrooms, bacon, and pepperoni. But Sam loved to experiment with food, having introduced Chinese inspired dishes like sweet and sour chicken, and in 1962 he added canned pineapples to a pizza, along with some ham.

So, what did the locals think of this sweet and savoury experiment? It got mixed reviews, but the strange combination soon spread across to North America and the rest of the world.

But why do we call it Hawaiian Pizza? Well, that’s an easy one to answer. Sam named the pizza after the brand of tinned pineapples he originally used to create the dish, called Hawaiian.

And in case you are wondering – I LOVE it and Mrs Warwood HATES it (but only because she’s allergic to pineapples).

More pizza facts:

October is National Pizza Month in the United States – so if you are reading this and it's October, you can make a strong argument to change tonight's dinner plans.
A hacker group known as UGNAZI once crashed Papa John's website because the company delivered a pizza late.
Other toppings that have been put on pizza around the world include wasabi mayonnaise and squid ink (Japan), smoked reindeer (Finland), a fried egg (France), and bananas and curry powder (Sweeden).