delicious. debates: does pineapple truly belong on pizza?

Feb 23, 2017

The age-old debate was reignited by an Icelandic president and sparked an inter-office debate between two delicious. editors.

#FTW Pineapple has no place on pizza, by Sarah Bristow – Deputy Digital Editor

Australians just love a pineapple. Our passion for the tropical fruit knows no bounds – where else in the world would you find a giant replica but the land Down Under? Here pineapples experience no limitations when it comes to food groups. Aussies feel the pineapple is just as at home in a fruit salad, as it is a burger or scattered over pizza.

But it seems that Iceland does not share Australia’s passion, with Icelandic President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson recently confirming that if it were up to him he would ban the topping entirely. Speaking to a school group recently, he said he was fundamentally opposed to the pineapple on pizza addition. The news caused such an internet storm that the popular president was forced to back up his comments.

“I like pineapples, just not on pizza. I do not have the power to make laws which forbid people to put pineapples on their pizza. I am glad that I do not hold such power. Presidents should not have unlimited power. I would not want to hold this position if I could pass laws forbidding that which I don’t like. I would not want to live in such a country. For pizzas, I recommend seafood,” he said in a statement.

The delicious. office is fervently divided on the subject. I myself am not a fan of pineapple on pizza – I am a purist when it comes to toppings, preferring instead to sway away from the sweet tang of fruit and surge towards the traditional Italian toppings of tomato and cheese. But what I am a fan of is choice, so if you want to put pineapple on your pizza I support you. Even though, like Guðni, I too am fundamentally opposed to pineapple as a topping, I am equally opposed to dictatorship when it comes to eating. So if you must destroy the perfect balance of savoury ingredients on a pizza with the tart presence of pineapple, so be it.

I’ll just leave these tweets from my fellow comrades, here:

Let’s poll it: pineapple as a pizza topping?

— Declan Cashin (@Tweet_Dec) February 21, 2017

and this brilliant person:

#pineappleonPizza is trash and should be banned @ me pic.twitter.com/SFNMQi0XUb

— KeepGoatrappoloTBH (@BradyThrowsFive) February 23, 2017

The rebuttal, by John Hannan – Digital Editor

Fundamentally, pineapple is as Australian as a meat pie. We may not have been the first to invent it but boy have we mastered the art of cooking, and more importantly eating it. When news broke of the Icelandic President condemning pineapple on pizza, people understandably had a meltdown. Personally, I am one of those people.

At first it might be hard to conceive how someone could not like the sweet tang of pineapple (connoisseurs will arguably agree that it must be the canned variety) on a light crust with cheese and accompanied by slices of ham. But, then again this is Iceland we’re talking about – a country where the average temperature in summer is 14C. It’s also the country that banned beer until 1989, where the people work on average 43.5 hours a week (that in itself declares war on the Australian people), is void of mosquitoes (we’ll concede that you’ve won on that front) and is where raw puffin heart is considered a delicacy.

Clearly, the people of Iceland have never had to endure a 45C day or the insatiable thirst only quenched by a cold beer that’s best followed by a ham and pineapple pizza and the cricket on the tele.

For all the naysayers, let’s use the rule of logic to explain this scientifically. By definition tomatoes, like pineapple, are a fruit. Now, clearly you wouldn’t go making a pizza without tomatoes. Therefore, I argue that pineapple does indeed belong on pizza. If the Italians are happy to use pears as a pizza topping and have the world accept it, it’s about time that the world let pineapple have its cheesy moment.

Proof that I’m not alone: