Nowadays you'll find it even in Italy, because tourists demand it and they pay hard cash, so fuck it all anyway.
...by people who don’t know where what they think of as “Italian pizza” actually comes from. Look up “pizza effect.”
Pizza existed before Italian migration to North America was even a thing. It gained tomatoes when they became more readily available and better known in the early XIX century, and that's about it. The explosion in Italian migration happened later, by then most of the traditional pizzas had long been codified.
WRT pizza, it's clearly false. Pizza was a thing in Italy before World War II and it spread through Europe from Italy, not from the USA. You can trace the history of many pizzerias in Italy back far further than the "pizza effect" would have you believe, so you can easily de-bunk it by going to the web site of a pizza place in Napoli.
Pizza margherita existed in the I̶X̶X̶ XIX century already in its modern form.
Amusingly, however, while it’s influence on the food itself is at the very least debatable, the influence of the US on how pizza is consumed is in fact very real: the fact that Italians nowadays drink beer with their pizza is something they learned from American GIs in WWII who brought the practice over from home.
Before that time, there was no overlap between Italians who drank beer (Northerners) and Italians who ate pizza (Southerners). Thanks the American soldiers Southerners learned to drink beer and Northerners learned about pizza.
I don't like fruit as part of a main course (i.e. not a dessert) or appetizer. That doesn't make me a snob, it just means I don't think fruit belongs there and don't appreciate when it is.
However pineapple with anything savory is by far the worst for me. I prefer to not even sit next to my wife and kids when they are eating pizza with pineapple on it because the smell from it is enough to throw the taste off.
1: Okay, there are some sauces that technically have some orange or orange juice in them, but have so many other ingredients that it really just adds the tiniest hint of tangyness. but e.g. duck a l'orange is too much orange for me.
Everyone I've ever talked to that has an issue with it just think it's gross. And they're usually people that are not very big risk-takers with their tastes, and order the exact same item at a restaurant every time they go. And only want either cheese pizza or pepperoni.
I'm pretty sure even Tomatoes weren't. I hope this isn't the reason for the disdain.
I don't know that "you can't call it X" is the right approach, but there should be some really clear to consumers way of saying "X was made to a particular standard" vs "all bets are off with Y" - then let them decide.
I'm French, we invented this legal device, I know how it works and why it exists (and I think it's got every right to).
Things that fall out of those ranges are simply called wors. Similar to the difference between a pork sausage and a pork banger.
Fish and chips for one. Curry wurst. Apple, persimmon, pine nut and blue cheese. Halloumi, pea, and mint. Mushroom, goat cheese and chipotle. Cranberry and white pudding. (Or cranberry and goat cheese) Christmas dinner. (Turkey, stuffing, ham, cranberry). Pulled pork. Roast pineapple and mint. Bacon and egg. Berry and cream cheese. Salmon and cream cheese and wasabi.
I have been known to make specific dinners in order to have the leftovers to put on pizza.
My first job was a pizza place where we had "Pizza of the Month" deals which were unusual pizza's. Street taco pizza? Amazing. Thanksgiving pizza? Amazing. Spicy honey + fresh mozzarella? Amazing. Baked potato pizza? Amazing.
Just gotta remember to not use tomato sauce for some of those.
I suspect you could experiment to your hearts content for a long while there.
[0] It's unlikely that you'll "find" yourself in Slade without already knowing about Miguel's.
There was a food truck at Cornell when I was there, Hot Truck, an institution on West Campus for late night food. They had a bunch of French bread pizzas, referred to in initial code. PMP (poor mans pizza), WGC(white garlic and cheese) and the always interesting WTF (chefs choice).
I feel that if it plausibly goes with bread and cheese, or if it’s street food, then it will probably work on a pizza.
They honey pizza reminds me of a pizza I got from a vending machine in France a couple years back, I think honey and chevre. There was this vending machine outside a pizza joint that would cook a whole pizza for you in about 5 minutes, presumably from cold preprepared pizzas.
It's seems a pretty silly thing to get worked up about. There are vastly more egregious slights to the good name of pizza in nearly every american frozen food aisle, after all.