Some debates have been going on since time immemorial. One particularly divisive question, of course, is whether pineapple belongs on pizza.
For Italian chef Davide Tamburella, the answer was a firm no. So firm, in fact, that his refusal to put the tropical fruit on a pizza became one of several reasons he lost his job at a restaurant in Brisbane, Australia.
Tamburella was dismissed on May 20 from La Costa Restaurant and Bar in Fortitude Valley, an Italian restaurant that once described itself as “where Brisbane’s inner-city world meets coastal Italy”. The restaurant closed in July after its lease ended.
According to the BBC, the dismissal came about two weeks after a meeting with management over several concerns about his conduct, including his refusal to prepare ham-and-pineapple pizzas for guests attending a function.
The restaurant’s former managing director, Elliot Ingram, told The Guardian that the customer organising the function, which cost more than A$15,000 (S$13,600 approximately), had specifically requested the pizzas.
Tamburella, however, was not having any of it.
According to a ruling by Australia’s Fair Work Commission released on Tuesday (Nov 3), the chef considered putting pineapple on pizza “an insult to his culture” as an Italian, and he argued that he should not have to follow management instructions that offended his cultural beliefs.
This was also not his first objection to the controversial topping.
The commission noted that Tamburella acknowledged that he had refused similar instructions three times over four years. He had also previously asked his employer to look into why Italians might object so strongly to pineapple on pizza.
The disagreement was particularly ironic given that La Costa was located in Queensland, Australia’s largest pineapple-producing state.
However, Tamburella’s dismissal went beyond his belief that pineapple on pizza was blasphemous, as management also raised concerns about Tamburella’s language, communication with colleagues and behaviour during service.
The commission also reported that the chef had also suffered a workplace injury after striking a metal handrail and fracturing his right hand in two places.
After he was dismissed, Tamburella brought a case before the commission, alleging that his dismissal breached the Fair Work Act and was partly connected to his workplace injury.
Ingram disputed this, maintaining that the injury, medical leave and workers’ compensation claim had not influenced the decision to dismiss him.
