Hawaiian Pizza

It doesn’t take much to spark a debate on social media. Say you like a political leader or party and watch the angry comments pour in. Dislike the same person and it gets worse. Talk about climate change, abortion, religion, the price of tea in China, and someone will jump all over you! Of course, not all debates are so serious. You may remember arguments of the past like what colour that dress really was, blue and black or white and gold? (The correct answer was blue; it never came in a white option) Should the toilet paper end come over the top or underneath the roll? (everyone knows only the purest psychopath has the paper come underneath the roll) Did the robotic voice say Yanni or Laurel? (It was Laurel) Is cereal soup? Is a hot dog a sandwich? But perhaps the longest running argument that seems to create the most controversy is… (drumroll)… Does pineapple belong on pizza?!? I have never seen such outrage (feigned and real) over such an odd topic!

Of course, we know the most famous pizza with pineapple on it is the classic Hawaiian pizza. Laying on top of a pizza crust, no matter whether you prefer thin, deep dish or traditional, that is a debate for a whole different day, sits a bed of tomato sauce, cheese, pineapple, and back bacon or ham. It transports one to the Hawaiian Islands doesn’t it? Pork reminiscent of the whole pig roasting at a luau, pineapple freshly picked from the Dole pineapple fields on Oahu, yet the roots of this pizza have nothing to do with the Pacific island chain. Not even a bit, other than conceptually.

Sotirios (Sam) Panopoulos was born in Vourvoura, Greece, in 1934. In 1954 he emigrated to Canada, and it was on that trip he had his first bite of pizza, in Naples Italy, the birthplace of the food. When Sam first hit Canada, he found work in the mines around Elliot Lake Ontario, but the work never really suited him, so he and his brothers moved to Chatham Ontario and started The Satellite Restaurant. The restaurant started out with some basic Canadian fare, like burgers and fries. In fact, pizza hadn’t really made any inroads in the Canadian food market yet, though it was a huge hit just across the border in Detroit.

By the 1960’s the business had taken off and the brothers had a small chain of Satellite restaurants up and running. Sam and his brothers decided to diversify the business and decided to start offering pizza in their restaurants. Pizza was still considered an ethnic Italian food and considered a novelty among Canadians. And according to Panopoulos we were pretty boring customers, stating most people would order the standard mushroom, bacon and pepperoni pie and that was it!

As pizza became more mainstream, Sam needed to find a way to differentiate themselves from the other places starting to offer pizza. One night, as a fun experiment, Sam opened a can of pineapple he had in the restaurant and put it on a pizza and offered it to the customers. It was a huge hit, everyone seemed to love the contrast between the sweet pineapple and the savory ham. So, they began offering it regularly on their menu, naming it a Hawaiian Pizza after the brand of canned pineapple they were using.

Sam’s Hawaiian pizzas could be made to order, they weren’t just ham and pineapple, you could put pineapple on any pizza combination you wanted, though the ham or back bacon combination proved the most popular. Eventually other restaurants caught on to the idea and the Hawaiian Pizza spread across the country.

Sam sold The Satellite Restaurant in the mid-70s and opened The Family Circle in London Ontario, eventually retiring at age 73 in 2007. He passed away on June 8, 2017 at the age of 83.

I will not state my personal preference about pineapple on pizza, instead in true social media fashion I will start a fight amongst almost all of you by quoting a political leader’s tweet about the Hawaiian Pizza. “I have a pineapple. I have a pizza. And I stand behind this delicious Southwestern Ontario creation. #TeamPineapple @Canada” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.