When the weather is cold, the fridge is empty and the supermarket is closed or too far away, there’s nothing better than picking up the phone or taking to the internet to get yourself a piping hot pizza delivery. Now, food delivery service Uber Eats has revealed the most popular pizzas to order in Bern - and it will hurt the soul of any pizza purist.
To celebrate its fourth year of operation in the de-facto capital of Switzerland Uber Eats revealed what people in Bern like to order for takeaway. 2023 saw the company achieve record results in the city, with 200 local restaurants now signed up for the service.
In terms of records, the most expensive order received in Bern last year was for a whopping 539 francs. Uber Eats said it was a mixture of various burgers, falafel and pasta dishes, although wouldn’t say who or which company placed the mammoth order. The highest tip received was just below 55 francs and, perhaps not something to be proud of: the company found that one Bernese resident ordered from Uber Eats 325 times in 2023.
In terms of the favourite dish of the Bernese, burgers took first place in 2023 - 30.000 burgers were ordered by residents of the city in just one year. Pizza followed, with Uber Eats noting that out of the 30 Swiss cities they serve, they deliver the most pizza to Bern. In 2023, one in 16 orders in the city was for some form of pizza.
However, the most controversial fact is the city’s preference for pizza. Neapolitans, look away now…
Last year, the favourite pizza in Bern was not the Margherita or Quattro Stagioni but Pizza Hawaii - the ham and pineapple combination that causes argument and debate worldwide. Cementing its status as a city with a penchant for peculiar pizza pies, the second most popular was Pizza Tonno (tuna pizza), while third place was taken by a peculiar combination of gorgonzola and pear.
The first Hawaiian pizza was created in 1962 in Ontario by Greek-Canadian restaurateur Sam Panopoulos. When asked why he combined ham with pineapple on a pizza, he said he was inspired by Chinese dishes that fuse sweet and sour into one delicious combination.
It was not long before pineapple nay-sayers and pizza purists started a semi-serious crusade against Hawaiian pizza. In 2017, Icelandic president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson joked that he would ban pineapple on pizza so long as he got a 30 percent mandate from those under 21 years old. This prompted widespread media attention and even the intervention of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who wrote that he stood “behind this delicious Southwestern Ontario creation.”
However, while some still baulk at the concept, others have clearly fallen in love with Pizza Hawaii, with Time Magazine listing the dish as one of the most influential pizzas of all time in 2014. John Green, famous author of The Fault in our Stars, praised the dish as truly "cosmopolitan", as the meal was invented by a Greek migrant in Canada, inspired by Chinese cuisine and created using an Italian staple and a South American fruit.