MasterChef judge’s $7.8 million wage scandal: What’s next for George Calombaris’?

It’s the wage scandal that has cost George Calombaris a lucrative endorsement deal and considerable public favour. Now, experts reveal how he can fix his brand.

• Shock as all three MasterChef judges quit
• Calombaris dumped after wages scandal

Celebrity chef George Calombaris’ professional and personal brand is in tatters in the wake of the $7.8 million wage scandal.

Revelations that Calombaris had underpaid employees millions of dollars over six years has already cost the former MasterChef judge a lucrative endorsement deal and considerable public favour.

So is there any way “brand George” can come back from it?

Customers took to social media to describe the scandal as a “turn off” and a “bad example of an apology”, with some pledging to boycott his restaurants, which include Melbourne fast food eatery Jimmy Grants and Hellenic Republic.

MasterChef judge George Calombaris is facing a ‘huge’ PR challenge, crisis management experts say. Picture: AAP

Crisis management expert Peter Wilkinson told News Corp Australia the scandal “will have a huge impact on his brand”.

“And in the relatively well-informed fine-dining community it will probably be remembered for a long time,” Wilkinson said.

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“What he does next, rather than what he says, will be important. Managed differently from the beginning, his reputation would now be in a better place,” he said.

“If you are a celebrity, as George is, you are always on show. To start with your behaviour has to be impeccable.

“And you have to do whatever it takes to make sure your apologies to underpaid staff are seen to be genuine. If it’s lawyers at ten paces this takes extra care.”

The celebrity chef has apogised for the $7.8 million in underpaid wages. Picture: AAP

Fusion Strategy’s media analyst Steve Allen told News Corp Australia the scandal had done a “tremendous amount of damage” to Calombaris’ reputation and public standing.

“He can only come back if he really gets on the front foot by fronting up to journalists and fielding questions,” Allen said.

“He really has to put as much of his personality into ‘please forgive me’ as he does into promoting his businesses.

“I understand them wanting to stand firm and back him … but this is very serious.”

Calombaris admitted underpaying employees by $7.8 million over six years, with a four-year investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman revealing he had undercut 515 past and present employees.

George Calombaris at the Press Club — the jewel in his restaurant empire — which was recently closed and will be redeveloped into a new eatery. Picture: News Corp Australia

The MasterChef judge was ordered to pay a $200,000 “contrition payment”.

This week Calombaris was sensationally dumped as the face of Tourism WA’s food and wine campaign — a deal tied to MasterChef and said to be worth as much as $1.2 million.

“We’ve paused all of our work with George for now and we’re talking to his management about recouping some of our costs that we’ve paid him,” Tourism WA managing director Brodie Carr told a Perth radio station.

“We’ll continue with the campaign that we’re doing with MasterChef but probably not with George.

In a statement earlier on Tuesday, Ten said it was standing by Calombaris, who is a star of the network and fronted MasterChef, one of its flagship series.

But the network yesterday revealed Calombaris and cohosts Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan have all decided to leave the hit cooking show after 11 years.

Can ‘brand George’ come back from this scandal? Picture: News Corp Australia

Addressing the underpayment scandal, Calombaris said there was “no excuse” for underpaying staff.

“I am deeply sorry for what has happened, and have apologised to our affected team members, past and present,” Calombaris told News Corp Australia last week.

“There are two important things for Australians to know. The first is that when we discovered there were incorrect payments to members of the team, we self reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman and co-operated with their investigation.

“The second is that our team members, past and present, have been back-paid in full, and the vast majority repaid before October 2017 in consultation with Fair Work.

“My focus has been on my team, on co-operating fully with the Fair Work Ombudsman and ensuring all team members who were owed entitlements were back-paid in full.”