Curtis Stone tells George Calombaris to come to LA
Curtis Stone has gone to bat for George Calombaris, calling on the public to forgive him and inviting his mate to take his Greek food empire to the US.
Confidential
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Curtis Stone has urged his good friend George Calombaris to bring his Greek food empire to Los Angeles.
Stone said the former MasterChefjudge should take Hellenic Republic abroad and it was “absolutely” time for people to forgive him for underpaying staff.
“I just had dinner there (at Hellenic Republic in Brighton) while I was in Melbourne last week and it’s so good, I’m trying to convince him to come to LA and open one there,’’ said Stone who is based in LA managing his restaurants Gwen and Maude.
“We don’t know how lucky we are in Melbourne with food. George has done so much, there’s been such a big Greek population in Australia for so long, especially in Melbourne. But it’s only pretty recent that broadly we’ve celebrated Greek cuisine and George has been clearly at the forefront of that.”
Stone kicked off Christmas season with a Coles lunch on Tuesday in Sydney. He was tipped to take up a judging role on MasterChef but thinks the three new judges deserve a chance.
“I think they’re great, I thought the last ones were great too, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens,’’ Stone said. “You never know why a show works. Is it the format, the hosts, you never know.
“I’ve only ever done one or two episodes a season so I’d say it would be the same.”
Stone, who is also filming a new series of his show Field Trip, will be back in Melbourne for Christmas with his wife and children. “I’m excited this year to come back, the kids are at an age that they can enjoy it,” he said.