On Feb. 21 the president of Iceland said if he had his way he would ban pineapple on pizza, according to CNN on Feb. 21. This prompted people — mainly in support of this suggested ban — to go on Twitter and let the world know where they stood. Recently there has been a lot of debate, including the creation of memes, about how people are just plain silly for liking pineapple pizza. However, there is little to no merit to these claims. Why shouldn’t people be able to enjoy the sweet and salty combination of pineapples on pizza? I believe there is no reason they shouldn’t. Pineapple belongs on pizza for three main reasons — it has a long history of being a part of pizza, many people enjoy pineapple pizza and, finally, it can be mixed with a variety of toppings to create a balanced and full taste.
In 1962 at Satellite Restaurant in Ontario, Canada, Sam Panopoulos created the first ever Hawaiian pizza, topped with ham and pineapple, according to the Food Network. This was an instant hit, even in the conservative pizza-loving Canada.
“People only put on mushroom, bacon and pepperoni, that’s all,” Panopoulos said. “I had pineapple in the restaurant, and I put some on. And I shared with some customers and they liked it. And we started serving it that way.” This shows that pineapple has a history of being included on pizza and shows true innovation with food. Panopoulos saw a chance to make something new people might love, and he was right in doing so. Pizza with pineapple has been around for quite some time now and is ingrained in many cultures. This leads to my next reason — people generally enjoy pineapples on their pizza.
Buzzfeed offered a poll asking whether people think pineapple on pizza is great, gross, or if they don’t care. Sixty-four percent, or 54,300 people, said they think it is great, mentioning the sweet to savory ratio. Only 29 percent, or 25,000 people, said they think it is gross. And 7 percent, or 5,467 people, said they did not care. This clearly shows that people enjoy pineapple on their pizza, more so than they do not. According to the poll, the reason people said they thought it was great was because of the spot-on sweet to savory ratio, which helps prove my third reason pineapple belongs on pizza — it provides a balanced taste.
When judging any food it is about the taste — how different is it, how much it makes you want more. This is the benefit of putting pineapple on pizza. It gives people the ability to have sweet and savory tastes on a pizza, something that was not as feasible before its creation. Having the ability to mix pineapple with other toppings such as ham allows for a significant expansion of the palate and allows for people to truly get many flavors from pizza, something people are not used to being able to get.
So let’s end this debate — let pizza be free and let people choose whatever toppings they want for their pizza, including pineapple. Because in the end, it should be in the creative and tasteful image that allows people to put what they want on their pizza.
I think it’s funny as all get-out that pineapple as a pizza topping was first tried where no pineapple has ever grown. Fun read, thanks for writing this.
For the record, my favorite pizza topping is pineapple, jalapeno and whole garlic cloves.