Ex-MasterChef host George Calombaris reveals $3m hit to his business empire and how he spiralled into alcohol addiction
Ex-MasterChef host George Calombaris has detailed his scandals that led to him losing $3m of his business empire, and how he spiralled into alcohol addiction. LISTEN TO THE AUDIO
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Former MasterChef host George Calombaris has revealed the back to back scandals which tanked his restaurant empire cost him $3 million and drove him to alcohol addiction.
The Greek Australian chef, who was embroiled in controversy over an alleged assault on the sidelines of a footy game and a $7.8m staff underpayment scandal, spoke eight years after the incidents.
In a tell-all interview with Ouzo Talk, a self-proclaimed “podcast for Greeks of the diaspora”, Calombaris detailed his spiral into alcohol addiction culminating with his brother finding him “pissed as a fart” in his car.
“After Covid hit, I’m suddenly sitting in Melbourne, which is shut for now two years, sitting with my pyjamas on … looking at my phone going there’s no emails, there’s nothing to do (and I) start drinking daily,” the star chef said.
“I’ll never forget three months down the track I lost it one night. I got in my car, drove down the road, I don’t know where (I was). My brother found me pissed as a fart.
“And that was a moment, he really slapped it out of me and went enough is enough.”
The Melbourne restaurateur turned TV personality first found himself at odds with the Fair Work commission after it was alerted by Calombaris’ own business, Made Establishment, that it had been underpaying its workers.
“We love in Australia (to) never let the truth get in the way of a good story,” Calombaris said.
“The truth of the matter is that we overpaid and underpaid 51 per cent of our crew and 49 per cent of them, we had 550 team members and we found the problem.
“We went to Fair Work, we owned up and we paid.”
The commission found the full extent of underpayments dwarfed the initial assessment by Made Establishment of $2.6m of underpayments, instead amounting to a whopping $7.8m affecting 515 employees over a six-year period.
Calombaris then ended up on the wrong side of the law, charged with assaulting a fan at the 2017 A-League grand final between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC. He won an appeal to overturn the conviction six months later.
“It was six months of pain you know, I had to go in and out of court three times, hire one of the best KC’s of the time,” he said.
“I reckon it cost around 3 million bucks that, in loss of endorsements … Ridiculous, stupid, I would have rather taken that 3 million and given it to charity.”
In a little over six months, the business Calombaris spent 13 years building went from being one of the most successful hospitality empires in Australia to entering voluntary administration.
A former Melbourne high-flyer, Calombaris has found a new lease on life after launching a venture in Sydney’s inner-east.
“I won’t lie to you, Melbourne I love to death right. But I feel this renewed energy being here in Sydney,” he said.
“Sydney’s truly an international city, I’ve travelled everywhere in the world with my job and Sydney’s in the top five cities in the world.”
Gazi, which originally opened in Melbourne replacing Calombaris’ slick fine diner Press Club, has now moved to Sydney. First marketed as a limited time pop-up, it appears Sydney’s newest Greek restaurant will be a mainstay of Darlinghurst dining.
“I feel that there’s this buzz here and I’m a part of this buzz and we’ve got lots of good plans here,” Calombaris said.
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