Italian Chef Fired from Australian Restaurant After Refusing to Put Pineapple on Pizza
by Simon Kent · BreitbartNo pineapple, no job. That was the decision made by the management of an Australian restaurant after an Italian chef employee refused to add the tropical fruit to a pizza saying it was an affront to his cultural traditions.
The sacked chef refused for the third time to add pineapple – and ham – on the grounds it was an “insult to his culture” thus sparking his enforced exit and furore in the same country that gave the world Vegemite pizza.
The BBC reports the matter came to light after the indignant chef Davide Tamburella went to Australia’s Fair Work Commission claiming he had been unfairly dismissed from the La Costa restaurant in Brisbane.
In its ruling released on Tuesday, the commission noted Tamburella’s refusal to create pineapple pizza was because “he considers, as an Italian, that putting pineapple on a pizza is an insult to his culture.”
Such an addition has long been a matter of controversy for Italians and pure pizza lovers everywhere with Iceland’s president Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson joking (we think) in 2017 that pizza topped with pineapple should be outlawed.
It also noted that it was the third time in succession Tamburella had refused to use the fruit on pizzas in the past four years.
The crestfallen chef had previously requested his boss to “check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza.”
Tamburella lost his unfair dismissal claim on the grounds the application had been filed too late, according to the ruling.
A recent Australian national poll conducted by Nine.com.au found 72 percent of respondents said it was a definite yes to pineapple pizza.