Italian chef Davide Tamburella was fired in May from the now-closed La Costa restaurant in Brisbane after refusing to serve ham and pineapple pizzas at an event.

He told his employer, Elliot Ingram, that putting pineapple on pizza was an "insult to his culture" and argued the direction need not be followed when it offended his culture.

According to 1News, reports said Ingram acknowledged pineapple is not a classic topping but insisted the customer needed to be considered.

Ingram doubled down on the decision, telling The Age: "With Italians, they're very traditional when it comes to their food, especially pizza. But at the end of the day, we're not in Italy."

The dispute is surprising because it escalated a long-running food-culture argument into an employment case — and in Queensland of all places, which dagens.com notes produces all of Australia's commercial pineapples and is home to The Big Pineapple, a 16-metre fibreglass landmark.

The Fair Work Commission reportedly found this was the third time in four years Tamburella had refused the request, and that he urged his manager to research how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on pizza.

dagens.com also reports he has since found work at another Brisbane restaurant, whose menu confirmed no pineapple anywhere.

The pizza was not the whole case. Both 1News and dagens.com report that management cited foul language, communication style, and an "escalation of frustration in the workplace" among the reasons for dismissal.

dagens.com adds a reported April incident in which Tamburella struck a metal handrail, suffering multiple fractures in his right hand.

Ingram told the Daily Mail the case "wasn't just about a pizza topping", saying refusing a management direction on a customer request was one of several matters raised during the disciplinary process, alongside concerns about inappropriate language and escalation during service, per 1News.

Tamburella's unfair dismissal claim failed at Australia's Fair Work Commission. 1News reports the Commission found the application had been lodged outside the statutory deadline, which ended the challenge on procedural grounds.

The chef's position was that workplace orders "need not be followed when it is offensive to his culture", according to the tribunal as cited by dagens.com.

The outcome leaves the running of a kitchen clearly with management in Australia, at least as Ingram frames it: "We're in Australia and we have to go with what the customers' reasonable requests are."

For restaurateurs, the case illustrates how customer requests can override kitchen tradition when chefs and owners disagree — and how cultural conviction in the kitchen can collide with service reality outside Italy.

For diners, the pineapple pizza debate shows no sign of cooling, and dagens.com frames the Queensland setting as a particularly risky spot to wage that war.

The pack does not indicate any appeal is planned, but both outlets suggest the story has become a talking point about whether classic Italian food rules should apply in Australian restaurants.