The Great Pizza Debate: The world’s most unconventional pizza toppings

From kimchi to crocodile, we explore the most unconventional pizza toppings from around the world and why they spark such passionate opinions.

Everyone loves pizza. It's the great culinary unifier, right? At least it is until someone dares to suggest a non-traditional topping like pineapple, and you find yourself in the middle of a global food fight. The war over what does and doesn't belong on pizza is a heated, doughy battlefield that divides friends, families, and even nations. From potato to pickles, here are a few of the toppings that have pizza purists clutching their mozzarella balls in horror.

Where better to start than with the classic debate. Pineapple! Whether you love it or think it’s an abomination, the sweet-and-savoury combo has been sparking fiery arguments for decades. For some, pineapple and pizza are a match made in heaven. For others, it is a betrayal of the gods of Italian cuisine. But pineapple is just one of a long list of questionable toppings...

While Japan had, until recently, cornered the market on questionable pizza toppings with seaweed, miso, and mayonnaise on the menu, South Korea came in swinging with kimchi, sweet potato, and bulgogi. Though these only sound unusual until Hong Kong enters the ring with eel pizza and a shredded snake meat offering that made its way onto Pizza Hut’s 2023 menu but thankfully, some might say, has since been discontinued.

Over in the United Kingdom, it’s all about beans, with Heinz offering a hugely popular DIY cook at home pizza smothered in baked beans. Then there’s Scandinavia’s somewhat quirky, if not downright weird, contributions to the pizza arts. Take Sweden's banana curry pizza. Please! Yes, this oddball creation mixes bananas, curry powder, and cheese with an assortment of other toppings. Or in Finland, where Rudolph and friends mustn't have been pulling their weight, because reindeer meat has found its way onto pizza, accompanied by lingonberries and mushrooms.

Before we judge, things can get pretty peculiar in pizza culture here in Australia. Chow down on the Aussie coat of arms at Sydney’s Australian Heritage Hotel, where you’ll find pizza topped with emu, pepper kangaroo, slow roasted tomato, charred peppers and lemon myrtle. You can also indulge in pizza that bites back – their saltwater crocodile pizza is topped with real croc mince, and drizzled with a zesty lime and peanut sauce.  

But that’s not the only eyebrow-raising pizza topping you’ll fine Down Under. Here are a few other toppings that may or may not float your pizza boat...

Still in Sydney, Sneakies monster-size pizza burger is a heaving creation stacked with four beef patties, two slabs of fried chicken, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and Sneakies' hamburger sauce.

How does pickle pizza sound? Yes, that's right a straight-up pickle and garlic pizza. While some say it’s a tangy, crunchy flavour-packed dream, I prefer my pickles in a jar.

Hawthorn’s Pizza Religion gets creative credit for their topping options like pumpkin and almond, pork and cabbage, and even sherry-braised beef cheek and cauliflower puree.

But when it comes to the most Aussie topping of them all, who could go past a hearty slab of Vegemite pizza at Katoomba’s Station Bar & Woodfire Pizza.