The Canadian Story Behind Hawaiian Pizza

Believe it or not, Hawaiian pizza was created by a Canadian. Considered unholy by some pizza purists, the combination of ham and pineapple has nevertheless become a familiar fixture on pizza menus around the world.

Hawaiian pizza was created in 1962 by Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-born restaurateur who moved to Canada at the age of 20. He and his brothers were running a restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, when they decided to experiment with putting canned pineapple on a pizza. The pizza was named Hawaiian after the brand of canned pineapple they used, rather than because the recipe originated in Hawaii.

Panopoulos later explained to the BBC that they were simply experimenting and wanted to see how the unusual combination would taste. The result became one of the most debated pizza toppings ever created.

The traditional version pairs sweet pineapple with salty ham, creating the sweet-and-savory contrast that defines the pizza. While the combination has inspired plenty of strong opinions, Hawaiian pizza has remained popular for decades.

There is another interesting misconception hidden in the name. Pineapples are not native to Hawaii. The fruit originated in South America, most likely in the region that includes southern Brazil and Paraguay. Pineapples eventually spread throughout the Americas before being carried by European explorers and traders to other parts of the world.

The pineapple reached the Hawaiian Islands by the late 18th or early 19th century. Hawaiians called the unfamiliar fruit hala kahiki, which roughly translates to “foreign hala,” comparing it to the native hala fruit.

So while Hawaii gave Hawaiian pizza its name, neither the pizza nor the pineapple that inspired it actually originated there. The pizza itself was a distinctly Canadian experiment that began in a small Ontario restaurant in 1962 and went on to become one of the world’s most recognizable and controversial pizza combinations.