Some pizzerias will go to great lengths to dissuade customers from ordering pizza with pineapple as topping.
An outstanding example could be England, where the owners of a popular pizzeria charge £100 to anyone who orders it. That’s equal to $121 in the US
Lupa Pizza in Norwich has put a hefty price tag on Hawaiian pizza on its menu, according to food delivery service Deliveroo’s website.
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The menu description reads: “Yes, for £100 you can have it. Order champagne too! Go ahead, monster!”
When asked about the price, co-owner Francis Woolf told news outlet SWNS, “I absolutely hate pineapple on pizza.”
Francis Woolf, Quin Jianoran and Felix Rehberg, co-owners of Lupa Pizza in England, stare at a Hawaiian pizza and its pineapple topping. (Denise Bradley/Newsquest/SWNS)
Executive Chef Quin Jianoran agreed.
“I like a piña colada, but pineapple on pizza? Never,” Jianoran told SWNS.
“I’d rather put a damn strawberry on one than that tropical menace.”
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The 100-pound pizza started as a joke, “a way to express our position on the subject,” Woolf told Fox News Digital.
“If someone orders a £100 pizza, of course we’ll make it for them, but [we] Believe me, that’s a fair price to pay for bad taste,” Woolf said.
Head chef and co-owner of Lupa Pizza Quin Jianoran crushes a pineapple. (Denise Bradley/Newsquest/SWNS)
John Stetson, CEO of Florida-based Stoner’s Pizza Joint, which has 52 locations in seven states, credits Lupa Pizza’s creative marketing.
“I think it’s a genius way to get attention,” Stetson told Fox News Digital.
Stetson, however, said he wouldn’t “discriminate” against customers who wanted Hawaiian pizza at Stoner’s by pricing them — even if he personally agrees that pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza.
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“The people who bring the product out want the flavors that we believe create the best flavor, and for us that’s our cheese and our dough and the different meats that we put on it,” Stetson said. “Pineapple spoils it.”
Certain flavors “create the best flavor, and for us it’s our cheese and our dough and the different meats we put on it. Pineapple ruins that.”
Hawaiian pizza sales at Stoner’s Pizza Joint locations ranked seventh among 11 standard pizza options before the adjustment, Stetson said.
“So people are ordering it,” he said. “It’s not at the bottom, but it’s definitely not the best mover.”
What is Hawaiian Pizza?
Hawaiian pizza is a pie that is traditionally topped with pineapple, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and either ham or bacon.
Despite its name, the controversial combination of pizza toppings owes its origin to a Canadian chef.
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Sam Panopoulos, a Greek immigrant who settled in Ontario, Canada and opened the Satellite restaurant in 1962, is widely regarded as the inventor of the Hawaiian pizza.
Panopoulos had the idea of adding canned pineapple to his restaurant’s pizza, which became popular with his customers, but has since earned scorn among a legion of pizza puritans.
Hawaiian pizza at Lupa pizza is prepared with pineapple and ham as toppings. (Denise Bradley/Newsquest/SWNS)
“We just put it on, just for fun, [to] see how it will taste,” Panopoulos told the BBC in 2017, a few months before his death.
“We were young in the business and we were doing a lot of experiments.”
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In February 2017, Iceland’s then-president Guoni Johannesson said pineapple should be banned from pizza, according to published reports.
His remark, made as a joke to high school students, made international headlines and sparked chatter on social media about pineapples as pizza toppings.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also chimed in, writing at the time: “I’ve got pineapple. I’ve got pizza. And I’m standing behind this delicious southwestern Ontario creation.”
Last year, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was seen on his daughter’s TikTok, declaring that pineapple “doesn’t belong on pizza.”
The reel then cuts to a hooded Ramsay eating a Hawaiian pizza.
