Hawaiian pizza facts for kids
Hawaiian pizza is a type of pizza originating in Canada, best known for having pineapple and either ham or bacon as toppings.
Hawaiian pizza is commonly considered controversial, provoking passionate and polarizing debate, mainly focused on the inclusion of pineapple.
History
Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-born Canadian, created the first Hawaiian pizza at the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, Canada in 1962. Inspired in part by his experience preparing Chinese dishes which commonly mix sweet and savoury flavours, Panopoulos experimented with adding pineapple, ham, bacon and other toppings. These additions were not initially very popular. The addition of pineapple to the traditional mix of tomato sauce and cheese, sometimes with ham or sometimes with bacon, soon became popular locally and eventually became a staple offering of pizzerias around the world. In regards to the naming of the dish, Panopoulos chose Hawaiian after the brand of canned pineapple they used.
In Germany, Hawaiian pizza is thought to be a variation of the ham, pineapple and cheese-topped Toast Hawaii, originally introduced by Germany's first TV cook Clemens Wilmenrod in 1955.
Surveys
Hawaiian was the most popular pizza in Australia in 1999, accounting for 15% of pizza sales.
A 2015 review of independent UK takeaways operating through Just Eat found the Hawaiian pizza to be the most commonly available.
A 2016 Harris Poll survey of US adults had pineapple in the top three least favorite pizza toppings, ahead of anchovies and mushrooms.
According to a 2019 YouGov Omnibus survey, 12% of Americans who eat pizza say that pineapple is one of their top three favorite pizza toppings, and 24% say that pineapple is one of their least favorite toppings. It was not the most disliked topping however, as ingredients were even more widely unpopular in the survey: anchovies and eggplant.
See also
In Spanish: Pizza hawaiana para niños
