An Italian chef sacked from a Brisbane restaurant had refused to put pineapple on a pizza because it was an “insult to his culture”.
Davide Tamburella was fired from the now-closed La Costa restaurant in May, a fortnight after a meeting with management who had a string of complaints about the chef’s behaviour.
Among them were Tamburella’s refusal to provide ham and pineapple pizza for guests at a function. At the time, the chef had stated that any direction from management “need not be followed when it is offensive to his culture”.
The details came to light after the chef went to Australia’s Fair Work Commission claiming he had been unfairly dismissed.
In its ruling released on Tuesday, the commission noted that Tamburella’s refusal to put pineapple on the pizzas was because “he considers, as an Italian, that putting pineapple on a pizza is an insult to his culture”.
tomatoes aren’t traditional in his culture
every culinary tradition people hold dear is something their great grandparents started doing
Yeah one of my grandparents likes to throw around “traditional” a lot in regards to food and it’s just code for “the way I like it”
For Italians, it’s more like “every culinary tradition people hold dear is something their dad started doing.”
Up until the 70s, most of Italy did not regularly consume pasta as part of their diet. Depending on what part of Italy he’s from, his great grandparents and grandparents may have lived an entire life and died without having ever consumed either pasta or tomato.
Right italy wasnt actually a country until not too long ago