Pineapple after pizza rage: 'Worse than a wallet kick'

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When Italian pizza baker Gino Sorbello introduced his own version of the classic Swedish “Hawaiian” dish on the menu, it led to a massive outcry.

“A hundred Neapolitan pizza bakers died when they saw this,” reads one comment on a clip of Sorbello tumbling over a cheese-soaked pineapple ring.

Hawaiian pizza may be one of the most popular types of pizza in Sweden, but in the promised land of pizza, Italy, this dish is considered considerably more controversial. When opinion pollster YouGov conducted a survey in 2018 of the culinary crimes Italians consider the worst committed against the country's cuisine, pizza topped with pineapple came in third place – just two places behind the worst sin of pouring ketchup on pasta. .

Thus, when the famous Neapolitan pizza baker Gino Sorbillo launched his creation “Margherita con ananas” in a clip on his Instagram account a while ago, it caused quite a stir.

“This pizza is worse than getting kicked in the scrotum — by a pair of Dr. Martens,” one follower commented on Sorbello's post.

Another comment said: “Leave that to the Americans,” while a third follower said: “If this pizza is already on the menu, you better shut up.”

“Don't go crazy”

The Neapolitan pizza baker himself seems well prepared for the backlash.

– Please, don't go crazy. “I'm bound by tradition, but I want to try this,” Sorbello wrote below the clip, in which he is seen cutting a large pineapple ring to be placed on top of a cheese-soaked pizza.

Hawaiian pizza is said to have originated in Canada, where in 1962 restaurateur Sam Panopoulos placed a few slices of pineapple on a pizza with mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce — much to the delight of guests.

Launches pizza ketchup

And Sorbello doesn't seem to have backed down from the pineapple pizza hype. Instead, he is now also launching pizza topped with ketchup, hated in Italian cuisine, the Naples newspaper wrote today.

“But the ketchup I use is made from locally grown date tomatoes,” the Neapolitan pizza baker confirms.