An Italian chef has lost his job in Brisbane, and his bid to fight the sacking has hit a legal wall, after he refused once more to put pineapple on pizza.

Davide Tamburella was dismissed as head chef at La Costa restaurant in Brisbane on May 20. He had been called to a meeting with management about his conduct and performance around a fortnight earlier. One of the issues on the table was his refusal to prepare ham and pineapple pizzas for a function. He said the topping was an insult to his culture. Management did not see it that way.

The customer hosting the event had asked for the pizzas as part of a booking worth more than A$15,000, roughly Rs 9 lakh. Tamburella held firm. According to details recorded by the commission, he had refused similar instructions twice before. That made it the third time in four years that a pineapple pizza order had ended in a standoff with his kitchen.

He had already made his feelings clear to his boss. On an earlier occasion, he asked him to check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza. It is hard to read that line without smiling, and it is probably the reason this story has spread so fast.

“Check how important it is for Italians not to put pineapple on a pizza.”

The chef did not stop at culture. Tamburella also argued that his dismissal was unfair. He alleged it was partly linked to a workplace injury, in which he fractured his right hand after striking a metal handrail. That is a serious claim, and it has never been tested on its merits.

Australia’s Fair Work Commission did not get that far. It rejected his application because it had been filed after the prescribed deadline. It also found that the case did not meet the requirements for exceptional circumstances that could have allowed a late filing. The decision was released on Tuesday, and it did not decide whether the restaurant was justified in letting him go.

In other words, the pizza question is still technically open in the eyes of the law, but the chef’s route to challenge his sacking is closed. The commission never examined whether the injury or the pizza refusals were behind the dismissal.

La Costa’s managing director, Elliot Ingram, pushed back on the idea that this was a simple food fight. He told reporters there was more to the story than a pizza topping. That suggests the refusal was one of several matters raised during the disciplinary process, not the sole reason for the firing. The restaurant has since closed, so the business is no longer around to add more to the record.

Another kitchen, no pineapple

Tamburella does not appear to be out of work for long. His LinkedIn profile lists him as the head chef at Don Gino, an Italian restaurant in West End, Brisbane. There is one detail that will delight the pizza purists. Pineapple does not feature on the restaurant’s menu.

For a chef who drew a hard line on the topping, that is a neat outcome. He has landed a head chef role at an Italian restaurant where his principles are unlikely to be tested by a corporate booking. Whether his new employer ever asks him to make a Hawaiian pizza is another question entirely.

The row also touches a nerve that goes beyond one kitchen. Food is personal, and for many people, cuisine is tied to family, identity and tradition. Tamburella framed his refusal in exactly those terms. Critics will say that a head chef who refuses to cook what a paying client has ordered is making his personal taste a workplace policy. Supporters will say he was standing up for his heritage against a topping that many Italians regard as an affront.

What is not in dispute is the money. A booking worth more than A$15,000 is not a small thing for a restaurant. Refusing an order of that size, three times over four years, is the kind of pattern that makes employers start building a file, and the commission’s records suggest that is what La Costa did.

The facts are simple. A chef was sacked after refusing to make pineapple pizzas for a large private function. He says the dispute was about his culture and that his injury was part of the story. The commission never ruled on either claim because his application arrived too late. The restaurant is closed, the chef has moved on, and the pineapple remains as controversial as ever.