- 1Davide Tamburella was fired in May from La Costa, a Brisbane restaurant that has since closed.
- 2Management's complaints included his refusal to provide ham and pineapple pizza for guests at a function.
- 3He claimed unfair dismissal at Australia's Fair Work Commission, which ruled he lost because the claim was filed too late, BBC News reports.
- 4The commission noted it was the third time in the past four years he had refused to use pineapple on pizzas.
A chef sacked from a Brisbane restaurant after refusing to put pineapple on a pizza has taken his dismissal to Australia's Fair Work Commission. According to BBC News, Davide Tamburella claimed he had been unfairly dismissed, and the commission's ruling, released on Tuesday, set out why he said he refused. BBC News reports that the commission's ruling said he lost the claim because the application was filed too late.
The case shows a kitchen dispute reaching Australia's Fair Work Commission and entering public view. The available reporting does not give the outcome of the unfair dismissal claim.
What the commission noted
Tamburella was fired in May from La Costa, a Queensland restaurant that has since closed. BBC News reports the dismissal came about a fortnight after a meeting with management, who had a string of complaints about his behavior. One of them was his refusal to provide ham and pineapple pizza for guests at a function.
BBC News says that at the time the chef stated that management direction "need not be followed when it is offensive to his culture". The commission noted that he refused because he considers, as an Italian, that putting pineapple on a pizza is "an insult to his culture".
The commission also noted it was the third time in the past four years that he had refused to use the fruit on pizzas. According to BBC News, he had earlier asked his boss to "check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza".
Analysis: the question underneath
This section is our analysis, not reporting. The dispute may raise a familiar workplace question: how far an employee's objection to a manager's direction can go. Management raised the refusal among its complaints; the chef's stated position was that such direction need not be followed when it offends his culture. According to BBC News, he lost the claim because it was filed too late, so the ruling did not turn on the pineapple dispute.
One aside from BBC News: Queensland is considered Australia's pineapple heartland and produces all of the country's commercially grown pineapples.
Source
BBC NewsReported from 1 published source (BBC News). Facts, figures and quotes come only from those sources. Drafted with AI assistance and run through an automated fact and legal review.
As the founding editor of Oppositioner, Alex Carter leads the platform’s investigative vision. With a background in political journalism and a relentless focus on exposing global power dynamics, Carter explores how authoritarian regimes manipulate narratives, weaponize technology, and undermine democratic structures. His work is grounded in uncovering state-sponsored disinformation and censorship.
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