The man who took the bold step of combining canned pineapple with ham to create the world-famous Hawaiian pizza has died.

Greek immigrant Sam Panopoulos dreamed up the topping more than 50 years ago at his Satellite Restaurant in Ontario, Canada.

The 83-year-old died suddenly in hospital on Thursday, having recently celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary.

Mr Panopoulos had a number of successful restaurants with his brothers when he first threw together the unlikely ingredients at his Chatham restaurant in 1962.

"Nobody liked it at first," he told Canadian broadcaster CBC earlier this year.


"But after that, they went crazy about it, because (in) those days nobody was mixing sweet and sour and all that. It was plain, plain food."

Little did he know it would eventually become a fixture on pizza menus all over the world.

The Hawaiian name is said to have come from the can of pineapples used the first time the iconic pizza was created.

Mr Panopoulos' creation was ridiculed in February by the leader of a country rather far from Hawaii - Iceland.

President Guoni Johannesson told schoolchildren he was "fundamentally opposed" to pineapple on pizza and said he wished he could ban it.

"He should know better," Mr Panopoulos told CBC after the comments sparked a light-hearted Twitter frenzy.

"I'm sure he is a lot younger than I am and I was doing pizza when I was a young guy, you know what I mean?"