The irony is that anchovies are one of the oldest pizza toppings in existence. According to culinary historians, one of the earliest versions of pizza — predating the modern American iteration by centuries — involved anchovies on bread in 18th century Italy, influenced by the Mediterranean culture of eating preserved fish on bread. When pizza made the journey to the United States, anchovies came with it, but the American palate proved considerably less receptive to the intensely briny fish than Italian coastal communities had been. For a topping with such a distinguished historical pedigree, anchovies have had a remarkably rough time winning over the country that now consumes more pizza than almost anywhere else on earth.
The Runner-Up That Everyone Loves to Debate: Pineapple
If anchovies are the topping that most people agree is terrible, pineapple is the topping that has generated the most passionate, most sustained, and most entertainingly ridiculous ongoing argument in pizza history. In The Daily Meal's survey, pineapple came in second place for worst pizza topping with 16.4 percent of votes — a distant second behind anchovies, but remarkable for a fruit that has been on pizza menus since 1962 and remains one of the most ordered toppings in the country.
The Hawaiian pizza — pineapple and ham — was created by Sam Panopoulos in Ontario, Canada, as an experimental combination designed to attract customers to his pizza restaurant. The contrasting flavors of sweet pineapple and savory ham proved genuinely popular, and the pizza became a permanent fixture on menus worldwide. And yet the debate it has sparked shows no signs of cooling down more than six decades later. Pineapple's opponents argue that fruit simply does not belong on a savory pizza — that the sweetness and acidity of pineapple clashes with the cheese and sauce rather than complementing them, that the juice released during baking makes the crust soggy, and that the very concept represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what pizza is supposed to be. Its defenders counter that the combination of sweet and savory is a well-established culinary principle used in dishes across countless cuisines, and that a good Hawaiian pizza offers a genuinely satisfying flavor contrast that plain cheese or pepperoni simply cannot provide.
The Rest of the Most Disliked Pizza Toppings
Beyond anchovies and pineapple, a number of other toppings consistently generate negative reactions from pizza lovers across the country. Understanding why each of these toppings falls short helps explain what actually makes a great pizza — and what tends to ruin one.
