Food history: Hawaiian pizza

Hawaiian pizza – from Hawaii, no? No. 

This is a short  Food History, unlike last week’s, which is a bit more extensive.

Hawaiian pizza was invented by a Greek man living in Canada in 1962. Sam Panopolous, co-owner of a restaurant in Ontario, added pineapple to pizza on a whim and its popularity was instantaneous.

At the time, pizza was fairly uncommon in Canada. Panapolous has been quoted as saying, “We’d never seen a pizza. We didn’t know what we were doing.” Later, a Hawaiian burger was attempted, but it did not have the same effect.

The original Hawaiian pizza consisted of ham, pineapple, tomato sauce, and cheese, in addition to the pizza crust; the creation was dubbed the “Polynesian perversion.”

While many varieties in present time include bacon (although, what doesn’t include bacon these days?), the first generation of Hawaiian pizza was baconless.

Admittedly, I did not think pineapple – or fruit of any kind – would go very well on a pizza the first time I tried it many years ago. I was happily proven wrong.