What do you think of pineapple on pizza? Are you a diehard fan of sweet, juicy fruit adding tang to a pizza’s salty cheese and ham? Or do you think the very premise verges on criminality, an abomination in pizza-topping form?
Here’s another question: if you’re a supporter of pineapple-on-pizza, how much would you pay to add your fave topping? One pizzeria in Norwich is out to test the limits of pineapple devotion.
If you buy a Hawaiian pizza at Lupa Pizza, it will set you back a massive £100. What makes their Hawaiian so brilliant? Well, nothing.
The price tag is not an indicator of quality, but instead an attempt to ward off would-be pineapple enthusiasts. The topping was added to the restaurant’s takeaway menu after customers asked for it, but, of course, with a catch. On the menu there is a note next to it which reads: ‘Yeah, for £100 you can have it. Order the champagne too! Go on you Monster!’
So it’s not so much an offering as a warning of sorts, although the only thing hurt by you ordering it is your bank account. That, and the feelings of Francis Woolf, one of the owners of the pizzeria, who says that he ‘absolutely loathe[s] pineapple on a pizza’.
His co-owner, Quin Jianoran, agreed, albeit without quite the same vitriol. ‘I love a pina colada, but pineapple on pizza? ‘Never. I’d rather put a bloody strawberry on one than that tropical menace,’ explained the restaurateur.
The pair agreed to add the dish permanently to their menu if a poll in the Norwich Evening News showed that more than 50 per cent of respondents are in favour – you can have your say here – but they won’t do it gladly.
Jianoran promised that ‘if pineapple wins the vote, I’ll make it, but I won’t be happy about it. And I might charge £200 next time.’
Whether or not you enjoy a Hawaiian, you have to admire the strength they have in their convictions. That’s the sort of passion we need in the culinary world.
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