How Finland Beat Italy at Pizza with Smoked Reindeer

In 2005, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a major diplomatic faux pas during Finland's bid to host the European Food Safety Authority. He boasted about "enduring" Finnish cuisine and claimed there was "absolutely no comparison between culatello from Parma and smoked reindeer."

The Finns didn't get mad. They got creative.

The Perfect Revenge Pizza

In 2008, Finnish pizza chain Kotipizza decided to turn the insult into inspiration. They created Pizza Berlusconi—a deliberately provocative pie topped with smoked reindeer, cheese, red onion, and chanterelle mushrooms on a rye crust. The pizza was a middle finger wrapped in melted cheese, celebrating the very ingredient Berlusconi had mocked.

Then they entered it into America's Plate International Pizza Competition in New York City.

Finland 1, Italy 0

Pizza Berlusconi won first place. An Italian-American entry came in second.

The victory was peak Finnish humor—dry, understated, and absolutely devastating. The country that invented pizza had been beaten by a Nordic nation using reindeer meat. Kotipizza's CEO didn't gloat publicly, but the message was clear: maybe Berlusconi should have kept his opinions to himself.

The Italian embassy was not amused. They demanded Kotipizza remove Berlusconi's name from the menu, arguing the company was profiting from unauthorized use of the Prime Minister's name. Kotipizza's response? An invitation for Berlusconi to visit Finland and discuss it over pizza. He never showed up.

A Surprising Epilogue

In a twist of irony, Berlusconi attended a state dinner in Helsinki in 2011. The menu? Reindeer fillet, salmon sandwiches, and warm chocolate tart. According to reports, he enjoyed it.

Kotipizza eventually renamed the pizza to "Poro" (Finnish for "reindeer"), but the legend lives on. It remains one of their most popular specialty pizzas, a delicious reminder that sometimes the best response to mockery is proving your critics spectacularly wrong.

• Smoked reindeer is a traditional Finnish ingredient, lean and slightly gamey
• Chanterelle mushrooms are foraged across Finland's forests
• Rye crust reflects Finland's Nordic bread traditions
• The pizza is still available at Kotipizza locations today

The Pizza Berlusconi saga perfectly captures the Finnish concept of sisu—quiet determination and turning adversity into triumph. Berlusconi tried to insult Finland's cuisine. Finland turned that insult into an award-winning pizza that's now part of culinary history.