Naples: “King of pizza makers” declares Hawaiian pizza “good”

Italians are proud of their gastronomic traditions. They insist on sourcing the best cuisine in the world. And they want to defend them. A famous pizza maker from Naples, owner of several restaurants in Italy and abroad, is now receiving a lot of criticism for including pizza with pineapple on the menu.

“There's a lot of prejudice.”

Gino Sorbello, “the king of Neapolitan pizza makers,” declared pineapple pizza good. “You can't judge anything without trying it first. There's a lot of prejudice against pizza with pineapple,” Sorbello said in a video of himself tasting the controversial combination.

Due to numerous critical reactions online, Sorbello announced that pineapple pizza would soon be on the menus of all his restaurants. Critics accused Sorbello of a clever marketing campaign.

“Italian cuisine is a treasure”

Meanwhile, the government in Rome is seeking to include Italian gastronomy on the list of intangible cultural heritage. Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida recently said, according to media reports, that “Italian cuisine is a treasure and must be defended.” The corresponding file is now being sent to UNESCO by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome.

The Coldiretti Agricultural Society complained that many Italian recipes had been so distorted abroad that the original dish was no longer recognizable. The example given is the macaroni and cheese dish, i.e. pasta with cheese sauce, which is very popular in the United States and has nothing in common with the Italian pasta tradition.