Former MasterChef judge George Calombaris refusing to ‘hide from past mistakes’

Former TV chef George Calombaris says he has a “duty” to the industry that ruined him and he can only learn from hitting rock bottom.

George Calombaris says he has a duty to the industry who ousted him and he can only learn from his “good, bad and ugly”. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Embattled celebrity chef George Calombaris says its his turn to give back to a hospitality industry in crisis.

The former MasterChef judge says he will not hide from his past mistakes.

But you won’t find Calombaris jumping out of a helicopter, or confessing all under a spotlight on SAS Australia.

Nor will you see him concocting a Ready Steady Cook menu (although that’s where his TV career started) of kangaroo balls and offal in the jungle on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

By George, the TV chef has been asked, it’s just not his go.

“I really am only good at cooking,” Calombaris laughs to Page 13.

He quickly corrects himself so as not to look ungrateful. This is perhaps a side of the news spiritual and Zen Calombaris, whose conversation keeps returning to moving forward with kindness and grace.

In 2019 Calombaris was embroiled in a $7.8 million underpayment scandal that caused the collapse of his MaDE Establishment Group and being fined $200,000 by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

A return to TV is definitely on the cards. For now Calombaris is spending his time on the phone every day, talking to chefs who have hit rock bottom under Victoria’s lockdown.

“It is brutal, just brutal,” Calombaris says.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not on the phone with a restaurateur in Melbourne, the place I love so dearly.

“In a weird way what we went through with MaDE was something similar. I’m grateful I can be there to help them along the way and give them a bit of my knowledge to help them get through this.

“You have got to have your finger on every pulse. If anything the lessons I can give them is through my darkest times in business.

“You have got to pull levers to keep things going.

“It’s tough and we all have to support each other. I keep saying at the moment be nice to each other.”

It’s all positively Namaste.

Former Masterchef judges and friends Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston and George Colombaris. Picture Lachie Millard

But Calombaris says hitting rock bottom made him change his perspective.

“I have hit rock bottom, but I have only written chapter one. Chapter two is ready to be written and I can only learn from my good, bad and ugly.

“Hopefully I can be an example, not only to my kids, but to young industry people that these are the lessons that you need to think of.”

A live Cooking4India 12-hour fundraiser on June 19 with his former MasterChef buddies Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan was postponed on Friday under lockdown restrictions.

The trio were treated like demigods in corona ravaged India where cases exceed 400,000 a day with thousands dying.

“This country has been absolutely decimated, but we will make it happen.”

The boys catch up from time to time. Mehigan lives just down the road from the Red Hill property Calombaris now calls home with his wife Natalie Tricarico and their two children after selling their Toorak pile for $8.8 million.

“We walk and talk, occasionally we exchange cakes we cook at home.

“We were in each other’s pockets for 11 years of MasterChef.”

The trio caught up for a long lunch, reminiscing on “former war stories” at Mornington Peninsula’s Tedesca Osteria before lockdown kicked in.

Expect to see more of Calombaris, even the spiritual side, as he makes his return to public life.

“I am on a panel to talk at a restaurant and catering event soon and I’m very excited about that,” he says.

“I have a duty to make sure I can be out there, helping those who need to be helped in the industry that I love dearly, which is hospitality.”