An Italian chef working in Australia has been dismissed from a Brisbane restaurant after repeatedly refusing to prepare pizzas topped with pineapple, describing the practice as an insult to his cultural heritage.
According to the BBC on Thursday, Davide Tamburella was sacked from the now-closed La Costa restaurant in May following a meeting with management over several complaints about his workplace conduct.
One of the issues centred on his refusal to prepare ham and pineapple pizzas for guests attending an event at the restaurant.
Details presented before Australia’s Fair Work Commission showed that Tamburella maintained that he was not obliged to follow management instructions if he considered them offensive to his culture.
In its ruling, released on Tuesday, the commission noted that the chef refused to use pineapple because “he considers, as an Italian, that putting pineapple on a pizza is an insult to his culture”.
The tribunal also established that it was the third time in four years that Tamburella had refused to prepare pizzas with the fruit topping.
On an earlier occasion, the chef had reportedly asked his employer to “check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza”.
However, the disagreement over pineapple was not the only issue raised by the restaurant’s management.
Other complaints included the chef’s use of foul language, communication style and what was described as an “escalation of frustration in the workplace”.
The commission’s ruling also detailed an incident in April in which Tamburella fractured bones in his right hand after striking a metal handrail.
The chef had reportedly hoped that the restaurant would sponsor his visa to enable him to remain in Australia as a skilled worker. However, following his dismissal, the restaurant discontinued the sponsorship process.
Tamburella subsequently filed an unfair dismissal claim with the Fair Work Commission but was unsuccessful after the tribunal determined that his application had been lodged outside the stipulated timeframe.
The restaurant’s managing director, Elliot Ingram, told the Daily Mail that there was “more to this story than a pizza topping”.
The BBC also contacted Tamburella for comment.
Meanwhile, his LinkedIn profile describes him as a chef committed to delivering exceptional food and improving business performance. He also shared a post three months ago titled “Letter for Chefs”, which focused on the importance of respecting ingredients.
His profile indicates that he now works at another restaurant in Brisbane, where pineapple is not featured on the menu.
Interestingly, Queensland, the Australian state where the dispute occurred, is widely regarded as the country’s pineapple-growing hub and produces all of Australia’s commercially grown pineapples.
The state is also home to the famous Big Pineapple, a 16-metre fibreglass landmark located on the Sunshine Coast.
