An Italian chef in Australia has lost his job after refusing to put pineapple on his pizza, considering the combination an insult to his country's culture and gastronomic tradition. The clash with restaurant management ended with his dismissal and then a legal battle, which he lost due to the late filing of the complaint.
Davide Tamburella was working as a chef at La Costa restaurant in Brisbane when management asked him to prepare a ham and pineapple pizza for guests at an event. But the Italian flatly refused.
According to him, the leaders' instructions should not be implemented when they were offensive to his culture.
Tamburella was fired on May 20, two weeks after a meeting with management, during which several complaints were raised about his behavior, including his refusal to prepare pineapple pizza.
The story came to light after the chef approached the Australian Fair Work Commission, claiming he had been unfairly dismissed.
In the decision published on November 3, the commission noted that Tamburella had refused to use pineapple precisely because, as an Italian, he considered this ingredient on pizza an insult to his culture.
In fact, this wasn't the first time the chef had so staunchly defended the Italian tradition. According to court documents, he had refused to make pineapple pizza three times in the past four years.
On one occasion, Tamburella even asked his boss to inform him how important it was for Italians not to put pineapple on pizza.
The restaurant's manager, Elliot Ingram, said there was more to the firing than just a pizza ingredient. Other complaints included inappropriate language and the chef's behavior at work.
The Commission dismissed Tamburella's complaint because it was filed outside the legal deadline, without deciding whether the dismissal was fair or not.
Queensland, the Australian state where the restaurant was located, is considered the center of pineapple production in Australia. It is also home to the tourist landmark "Big Pineapple," a giant pineapple 16 meters high.
The La Costa restaurant closed in July, after the lease expired.
Meanwhile, Tamburella has found a new job as a chef at another Italian restaurant in Brisbane.
There is no pineapple pizza on the new restaurant's menu.
