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Brisbane: An Italian chef was dismissed from a restaurant in Australia following what was described a series of management grievances regarding his professional conduct, among them a dispute over his refusal to add pineapple to a pizza, BBC reported.
The chef, Davide Tamburella, maintained that instructions from management "need not be followed when it is offensive to his culture".
The matter came to light after Tamburella lodged an unfair dismissal claim with the country's employment tribunal.
In its official ruling released on Tuesday, the commission acknowledged that the chef's defiance was because "he considers, as an Italian, that putting pineapple on a pizza is an insult to his culture".
The BBC report noted that it was the third time in four years that Tamburella had rejected requests to use the fruit on pizzas, having previously requested his employer to "check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza".
The Australian state of Queensland, the place where the restaurant is located in, accounts for the total commercial cultivation of pineapple nationwide.
