Who Invented Hawaiian Pizza?

TL;DR

Greek-born, Canadian pizza maker Sam Panopoulos invented the popular yet divisive Hawaiian pizza, adding pineapple and ham as toppings.

Transcript

On June 8, 2017, Greek-born, Canadian-bred pizza maker Sam Panopoulos died. His career slinging pies was rather unremarkable save for one notable thing – he was the inventor of the popular, yet infamous pineapple-topped “Hawaiian Pizza,” named as such because of the brand of canned fruit he used. Loved by some and hated by others, the sweet and sa... Read More

Key Insights

• 🫓 Pizza has a long history, with flat breads topped with various ingredients existing in ancient times.
• 🫓 The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. unearthed evidence of flat cakes made of flour, similar to early versions of pizza.
• 🍅 The introduction of the tomato to Europe led to the creation of the first basic tomato sauce pizza in Naples, Italy.
• 😋 Pizza gradually gained popularity, spreading from a food of the poor to a beloved dish worldwide.
• 🍕 The Hawaiian pizza became popular, despite initial skepticism, due to the experimentation of Sam Panopoulos.
• 🐹 The combination of pineapple and ham on pizza was influenced by the Americanized tiki culture of the time.
• 🙃 The Hawaiian pizza remains a controversial topic, with strong opinions on both sides of the debate.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Sam Panopoulos, a Greek immigrant to Canada, invented the Hawaiian pizza in 1962, adding pineapple and ham as toppings.

• Pizza can be traced back to ancient times, with flat breads being topped with various ingredients long before the modern concept of pizza emerged.

• The popularity of pizza spread from the poor to the affluent, and it made its way to North America in the early 20th century.