Truth behind viral ham and orange pizza from Bubba Pizza

The Aussie bloke behind the viral ham and orange pizza has revealed exactly how the divisive creation ended up on their menu.

The Aussie bloke behind the viral ham and orange pizza that has been dividing social media users has revealed exactly how it came to be in existence.

Damian Hopper, the managing director at Melbourne pizza franchise Bubba Pizza, woke up to a flurry of text messages that an unusual topping from his chain had gone viral, thanks to a Reddit thread.

Many people were outraged by the item, with one saying “straight to jail” while some were open to trying it.

Mr Hopper told news.com.au Bubba Pizza launched the ham and orange pizza in December as a summer offering — but “no one bought it”.

“Nothing happened. No one cared — no one even bought it,” Mr Hopper told news.com.au.

“But then all of a sudden this happened. We took all the posters down just last week, it must have just been one day this person has taken a photo of it.

“We had the long weekend and I woke up on Tuesday to texts, calls and dozens of articles about it.”

Damian Hopper is the managing director of Bubba Pizza. Picture: Instagram/@bubbapizza

Mr Hopper explained pizza is something that brings people together, but he said there is always a divisive ingredient — pineapple.

So, the business — alongside former GWS player Cooper Hamilton — decided they needed to ditch this issue and so oranges were thrown around as an idea because in Italy oranges are “almost a national fruit” and, to their surprise, it “tasted really good”.

“It was a different hit. It wasn’t as sweet as pineapple, it had that citrus hit, but with the ham and cheese it really worked,” he said.

“So, we put it out there to see if we could break the debate.”

Bubba Pizza has since put the pizza offering back on the menu as a result of all the attention, and are now offering customers to try it for free all week if they mention the pizza in store.

“Don’t worry about paying, we want to know if it’s a thing or if it’s something that blew up on the internet one day that no one will ever hear of again” he said.

Some people have come down to take advantage of the offer. For those who have tried it, Mr Hopper said: “They’re surprised it works.

“It’s a surprisingly awesome combination that works. We haven’t had one person say, ‘No, it’s not for me’. It’s only the people who haven’t tried it — the keyboard warriors that haven’t backed it.”

The ham and orange pizza. Picture: Instagram/@bubbapizza

He said some people keep coming back for it, but it isn’t “flying out the door” like a meatlovers pizza.

It’s not the first time the business has tried an “out there” pizza topping. After seeing how expensive food was at football stadiums in Melbourne, they decided to create their own take on classic footy staples. This resulted in a hot dog pizza, a meat pie pizza and a South Melbourne dim sim pizza. The last variety is still on the menu as it proved to be so popular.

“Pizza is just versatile,” he said.

“It’s just bread, sauce and cheese. Most foods are. Pizza just travels well and it can hold a lot more. It’s made to experiment.

“There are some traditionalists out there who do not appreciate what we’re doing with it but we’re Anglo-Saxon Aussie pizza people. We have no Italian heritage and we play into that.

“We’re a little bit bogan pizza. People can take food very seriously sometimes but our type of pizza is when you want to chill out and have a beer and a laugh with mates. It’s not bottle of red wine, woodfire pizza.”

Mr Hopper also revealed there was a prototype of a curried snags pizza in the works. It features a pizza base, curried sausages, cheese, spring onion, potato gems and garlic sauce. He said it was delicious but likely won’t make it onto menus permanently.

Bubba Pizza is a chain with stores in Victoria and South Australia. Picture: Instagram/@bubbapizza

The dim sim pizza. Picture: Instagram/@bubbapizza

“We’ll see what happens, you never know,” he said.

Mr Hopper is also hoping the attention will help bring the chain’s Croydon store back to its former glory, explaining to news.com.au it was the first site when his parents founded the chain and had three or four stores. He grew up working there alongside his brother.

But, as the chain expanded, the restaurant was franchised and the store “didn’t get much love”. It went through five owners in five years, and Mr Hopper decided to take back ownership.

“We don’t want to sell or close it, so we decided to go in and run it ourselves. We’re doing a campaign showing the journey,” he said.

“We’re putting our arse on the line to put the pressure on us that we need to get in there, roll up our sleeves and bring it back to its glory days.”

Part of that is engaging with the community, including a free pizza day on March 28 to “give the area a bit of love”.

Originally published as Truth behind viral ham and orange pizza from Bubba Pizza