The pineapple-on-pizza debate has sparked culinary wars for decades, but few know its origins trace back to a Canadian diner run by a Greek immigrant. In 1962, Sam Panopoulos, a chef born in Greece and raised in Ontario, decided to throw canned pineapple onto a pizza at his restaurant, the Satellite. The result? Hawaiian pizza—a sweet-and-savory abomination (or masterpiece, depending on your stance) that became a global phenomenon.
Panopoulos wasn’t trying to start a food fight. He’d grown bored with traditional pizza toppings and drew inspiration from sweet-and-sour Chinese dishes. “We just put it on for fun, to see how it was going to taste,” he later said. The combination of ham, pineapple, and cheese shocked customers at first, but curiosity (and the 1960s’ love for tiki culture) turned it into a hit. Panopoulos named it “Hawaiian” after the brand of canned pineapple he used, not the U.S. state—making it as Hawaiian as hockey.
The pizza’s success spread across Canada before invading the U.S. and beyond. By the 1980s, it was a menu staple, polarizing eaters into pro- and anti-pineapple factions. Iceland’s president once joked he’d ban pineapple on pizza if he could, while Hawaiian politicians clarified, “We didn’t do this, but we’ll take credit for the fruit.”
Panopoulos, who passed away in 2017, found the controversy amusing. “People take pizza too seriously,” he quipped. His creation endures as a testament to culinary experimentation—and a reminder that Canada’s greatest cultural export might be edible chaos.
So next time you argue about pineapple on pizza, remember: it’s not Hawaiian, Italian, or even American. It’s the brainchild of a Greek-Canadian chef who dared to ask, “What if pizza… but tropical?” Love it or hate it, that’s one sweet slice of history. Just don’t tell Naples.
