Although its ingredients aren't exactly traditionally German, toast Hawaii is a modern German classic - it was popularized by a TV cook Clemens Wilmenrod in the 1950s. In a similar way that the Americans have ruined pizza for some (mostly Italians) by adding pineapple to it, the Germans have also done the same thing to a sandwich.

Toast Hawaii is an open-faced sandwich consisting of a buttered slice of toasted white bread that's topped with a slice of ham, a slice of pineapple, and a slice of Gouda or Swiss cheese. The sandwich is placed under the broiler until the cheese melts, and the hole in the middle is then garnished with a cocktail cherry.

The ingredients used in this sandwich are a result of the time when it was invented – due to the fact that almost every household had canned pineapple and cheese slices at the time, it made this easily prepared sandwich seem exotic or even upscale.

Shortly after its invention, toast Hawaii started to appear on West German restaurant menus, usually accompanied by a bottle of Worcestershire sauce on the side.