Pineapple on pizza is one of the food world’s hottest debates – and for an Italian chef in Australia, it proved fateful! Davide Tamburella repeatedly refused to serve the controversial combination, and in the end he lost both his job and his chance at permanent residency.
Pineapple on pizza divides food lovers around the world. Photo: Pexels
Few toppings provoke such strong feelings as pineapple. Some love the sweet, juicy contrast against ham and melted cheese, while others see it as a downright sacrilege against one of the world’s most beloved dishes. For the Italian chef Davide Tamburella, the matter was crystal clear – pineapple does not belong on a pizza. Full stop.
That belief ultimately cost him his job at the restaurant La Costa in Brisbane, Australia. This emerges from a ruling by the Fair Work Commission, Australia’s employment tribunal, which BBC has seen.
Did not want to serve Hawaii at a large event
The conflict reached its climax when a customer booked a large private event at the restaurant, where the bill was set to come to over 15,000 dollars. Among the requests was pizza with ham and pineapple – the classic Hawaiian pizza.
The restaurant’s manager, Elliot Ingram, naturally wanted to accommodate the guest. But Tamburella refused. According to the commission’s decision, the chef argued that he did not need to follow his employer’s instructions when they were offensive to his culture, and for him, pineapple on pizza was exactly that.
It was far from the first time. During his years at La Costa, Tamburella had on three occasions refused to put pineapple on the pizza.
More than just a pizza topping
On 20 May this year, Tamburella was sacked, two weeks after a meeting at which the restaurant management had raised a number of concerns about his conduct. The refusal to make pineapple pizza was just one of the points – the employer also had concerns about his language, how he communicated with colleagues and how frustration was escalating in the workplace.
Ingram has emphasised that there was more behind the dismissal than a single pizza topping. Tamburella, for his part, believes that the dismissal was partly linked to a workplace injury – he had previously broken several bones in his right hand after hitting a metal railing.
Submitted their application too late
Tamburella took the matter to the Fair Work Commission to contest the dismissal. However, according to The Guardian, whose reporting was published by Irish Times, his application came in too late. In Australia, such a claim must, as a rule, be made within 21 days of the dismissal, and Commissioner Jennifer Hunt did not consider there to be any special circumstances that justified an exception.
The decision therefore does not mean that the commission has established that the employer was right on the merits. The question of whether the dismissal was justified was never examined.
Lost the chance for permanent residence permit
For Tamburella, the dismissal had far greater consequences than having to look for a new job. He had been in a process for more than three years to obtain permanent residency in Australia through a visa for which the employer acts as sponsor.
According to The Guardian, Ingram waited as long as the law allowed before withdrawing the sponsorship, hoping the application would be approved in time. It wasn’t – and now the chef must start from scratch.
A touch of irony
The story also has a geographical twist. Brisbane is located in the state of Queensland, which is Australia’s major pineapple region. There you’ll even find the tourist attraction Big Pineapple – an enormous pineapple in the form of a monument that has become a well-known landmark.
La Costa has since closed. The restaurant shut in July when the lease expired, and Ingram pointed to high costs in the Fortitude Valley district. Tamburella, however, has found a new job at another Italian restaurant in Brisbane – and there, unsurprisingly, there is no pineapple on the pizza menu.
The Pizza Debate That Never Ends
The question of pineapple on pizza has divided food lovers for decades, and it’s unlikely to be settled anytime soon. For many, pizza is a blank canvas where anything goes, while others hold firmly to Italian traditions, where few and carefully selected ingredients take centre stage.
Whatever side you stand on, one thing is certain: there’s hardly anyone who would more willingly risk his job for his pizza principle than Davide Tamburella.
