Where was Hawaiian pizza invented?
What most people think: Most people assume Hawaiian pizza was invented in Hawaii.
Guess before the Apple does
Just tell me the answer
In Canada. Greek-born restaurateur Sam Panopoulos is credited with putting ham and canned pineapple on a pizza at his Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, in 1962.
Pineapple on pizza has started more arguments than most politics. But whichever side you are on, there is one thing nearly everyone gets wrong about it: the Hawaiian pizza has nothing to do with Hawaii.
The short answer
Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada. It is credited to Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-born cook who ran the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario. He is reported to have first put ham and pineapple on a pizza there in 1962.
The real story
Panopoulos left Greece for Canada in 1954, stopping briefly in Naples on the way, and settled in Chatham, a town in south-western Ontario. He opened the Satellite there, and he was happy to experiment.
His restaurant was already serving Chinese-Canadian dishes, which are famous for mixing sweet and sour flavours. That gave him the idea that customers might enjoy a sweet topping alongside savoury ones. So he drained a can of pineapple, added it to a pizza with ham, and waited to see what happened. The toppings were not an instant hit, but the combination caught on over time.
The name has a couple of explanations. One account says it came from the brand of canned pineapple he used, which was produced by the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. Another links it to the craze for all things tropical and tiki at the time, a few years after Hawaii became a US state in 1959. Either way, the islands themselves had no part in the recipe.
Hawaiian pizza later travelled the world, and found particular fans in Australia, where it was the most popular pizza in 1999, accounting for about 15 percent of sales. It also has a curious cousin in Germany: Toast Hawaii, a grilled sandwich of ham, pineapple and cheese popularised by TV cook Clemens Wilmenrod in 1955.
And the arguments never stop. In 2017, Iceland’s president, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, joked that he would ban pineapple on pizza if he could. He later clarified that he was kidding, and that he had no such power anyway.
Why people get it wrong
The name tells you it is Hawaiian, so why would you question it? Pineapple is strongly associated with Hawaii. Put the two together and Hawaii seems like the only sensible birthplace.
But food names are often marketing rather than geography. Think of all the dishes named after places that have never heard of them. Hawaiian pizza is one of the best examples: a Greek immigrant in small-town Canada, inspired by Chinese takeaway flavours, using fruit out of a can.
“Greek bloke, Canadian town, Chinese inspiration, tinned pineapple. The only thing Hawaiian about it is the label. Love it or hate it, mate.”
Sources
Fact-checked 31 Oct 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it in public.
