International Hawaiian Pizza Day Date in the current year: August 20, 2026

Despite its name, Hawaiian pizza has little to do with Hawaii. It was invented by a Greek-born cook who owned a restaurant in Ontario and was inspired by American Chinese cuisine. Sotirios Panopoulos, who went by Sam after immigrating to Canada, was born in the Greek village of Vourvoura on August 20, 1934 and moved to Canada at age 20. After initially working in the mines, he opened the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, together with his brothers.

The restaurant originally served American staples, such as burgers and fries, as well as American-Chinese dishes. In the early 1960s, the menu expanded to include pizzas, a dish that had grown in popularity in recent years. Inspired by the sweet and sour flavor combination, commonly found in American Chinese cuisine, Panopoulos experimented with adding canned pineapple to pizza. He named the new pizza “Hawaiian” because the pineapple he used was produced by Dole, formerly the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.

The Hawaiian pizza wasn’t an immediate success. Over time, however, it became popular locally and eventually spread beyond Canada. A classic Hawaiian pizza has a dough base with tomato sauce, cheese (usually mozzarella), ham or Canadian bacon, and pineapple chunks. Drained canned pineapple is the traditional choice, though fresh pineapple can also be used.

Popular additions to the basic Hawaiian pizza include bacon and hot peppers. The bacon adds a savory element to the pizza while maintaining the original balance of salty meat and sweet pineapple, while the spiciness of the peppers provides an interesting contrast to the sweetness of the pineapple. Some versions contain other meats in addition to or instead of ham, such as sausage, chicken, or cured meats. However, it could be argued that these versions are not “true” Hawaiian pizza.

In 2020, Sam Panopoulos’s birthday was posthumously designated as International Hawaiian Pizza Day to honor the enduring and somewhat controversial legacy of his creation. The unusual flavor combination of Hawaiian pizza has proven to be quite polarizing, and the debate about whether pineapple belongs on pizza continues to this day. However, this debate also seems to reinforce the popularity of Hawaiian pizza because for every person who criticizes the combination of pineapple and meat, there is someone who defends it.

In fact, Hawaiian pizza has become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. For example, in 2017, Iceland’s president, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson jokingly said he would ban pineapple on pizza if he could. The media widely publicized this remark, and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau even voiced his support for Hawaiian pizza. So, given the cultural influence of Hawaiian pizza, it’s clear that it deserves its own holiday.