‘Flying, with 21 restaurants, to nothing at all’: Calombaris on being selfish and life after scandal
George Calombaris has moved on from the embarrassment of his multi-million dollar staff wages underpayment scandal - and is out of hiding - thanks to Eddie McGuire.
Victoria
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Former celebrity chef George Calombaris has opened up on his “big fall from grace” following his well-publicised staff underpayment scandal, revealing there were times he could not stop crying. The scandal - that saw his restaurant empire underpay employees millions of dollars over six years - brought his career crashing down. “We paid it all back, but it was a big fall from grace when we closed. I went from being on the biggest television show in Australia, flying, with 21 restaurants, to nothing at all. It all just stopped. The phone stopped ringing. Crickets. My self-worth went, my feeling of being needed and valued. It all just vanished. Everything stopped,” Calombaris reveals. “The embarrassment, the hiding, the self-loathing, the feeling of loss.” On reflection, Calombaris says he was “selfish to grow an empire, and selfish to be this big restaurateur”, and has now realised it is family, friends, community, health and happiness which matter most.
HM: George, the industry you love has been on its knees.
GC: It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it. Covid was the final nail in the coffin for many, but the industry was on its knees pre-Covid too. Unfortunately, we were all being very silent about it. We shouldn’t have been, we should have told people we needed help. I love my industry so much but it is as hard as it’s ever been for so many. The last three years since my business went under has given me an opportunity to try and support and help a lot of my fellow colleagues that are still in it, trying to survive. I couldn’t as an owner, but hopefully I can help others to.
HM: You had to close the doors of your Made business after you self-reported that you had been inadvertently underpaying some of your staff, and things never really picked up post?
GC: They didn’t. It was a brutal time for us all. We employed over 500 team members through Made Establishment, and after we self reported, we found it very, very hard. Our business closed through our mistakes, let’s be clear, and then the publicity that followed. We just couldn’t recover sadly. Right to the last day when we closed the doors of the restaurants, every one of those staff members were still there with me, next to me, fighting, trying to keep the 21 sites alive. But we couldn’t, it was a horrible time.
HM: I imagine incredibly difficult, and even more so given who you are, being incredibly public.
GC: It was all there for everyone to see, which obviously made it harder. You just feel like the world is going to come to an end and you’ll never enjoy anything again. I cried so much, it felt like every minute of the day when no one was watching me, I’d be in tears. I couldn’t see a way out.
HM: How did you get through?
GC: People … so many amazing people reached out to me and picked me up. Some of these I had never met, many were high profile people who had suffered adversity in their lives while most were just my nearest and dearest friends. What I’d forgotten, after being bashed up in the aftermath, was what was ahead, and what I had, if I looked closely. My health. My family. Opportunity. I had been so focused on the negativity, and I started to believe that there wasn’t anything good ahead. You start realising, even though I was getting crucified by the media, that there was some support out there. The most important thing was my family, and my friends. It’s during the tough times you really work out who your friends are.
HM: I can imagine the realisation of the underpayments would have made you feel sick, and then having to report it, knowing what would follow, must have been hard to stomach.
GC: The worst feeling. We found the problem, and then reported it. We didn’t wake up one morning and think, ‘we’re not going to pay people correctly’. It was a mistake – but an honest mistake. No one ever wrote that we actually overpaid 48 per cent of our workforce. We never asked for that back.
HM: Is that what happened?
GC: Yes, it was a mess. I guess I was too busy being busy, and got sloppy. I wasn’t checking on pay in the office, but I take responsibility for it. That was my fault. I just assumed it was in order, and you can’t assume. We paid it all back, but it was a big fall from grace when we closed. I went from being on the biggest television show in Australia, flying, with 21 restaurants, to nothing at all. It all just stopped. The phone stopped ringing. Crickets. My self-worth went, my feeling of being needed and valued. It all just vanished. Everything stopped. I had to sell up and move on. But this region on the Peninsula, and my family, saved me.
HM: Was there a moment you hit rock bottom?
GC: There was a moment one night where I experienced anxiety like I never had before, and that still plays a big part in my life now, but I’ve worked out ways to deal with it through meditation. But there was a night where I kept drinking and drinking and got drunker and drunker, and it all just got too much for me. It all got on top of me. I couldn’t handle it all any more. The embarrassment, the hiding, the self-loathing, the feeling of loss. I woke up the next day and thought, ‘I can’t live like this. This isn’t me. I am not this type of human. Yeah, it’s sh--, but it could be a lot worse. Get on with it’. That for me was a big wake up call. But now, I just feel really grateful for things.
I DON’T REGRET THE SOCCER INCIDENT WHEN I BLEW MY TOP
HM: You spoke about friends and family. I know your wife is an incredible supporter of you and your family because I hear her cheering on your daughter at junior basketball. When things were at their lowest, and you were selling your family home, you needed an incredibly strong and supportive partner by your side.
GC: Big time. I wonder sometimes how Natalie is still with me. Nat is an absolute stalwart. The hardest thing to watch was not losing the restaurants, or having to sell the house, because both of us have come from nothing, but it’s seeing the emotional effects it has on your family. I’ve always been very protective of my family. You’ll never see me putting pictures up of them, and I’m very careful about keeping their life private. So when you can’t leave your front yard because there’s photographers waiting, or my boy James is bullied about his dad at school, it really hurts.The soccer incident when I blew my top happened because I just let my emotions get the better of me.
HM: What caused it?
GC: Someone was talking about my family, and that’s just the one thing I have zero tolerance for. It got me in trouble that day, but to be honest, I don’t regret it. My family is everything, and I have a responsibility to protect them. I will never change that. It’s something dad always taught us. You protect and you look after your family at all costs.
HM: Once the noise died down and the negative articles stopped being written, and the pain you felt subsided a little, how did you go about healing whatever wounds you had?
GC: Covid hit in March of 2020, and we’d moved to Arthurs Seat. One day I just got sick of living in a state of numbness, and thought, ‘what difference can I make for people right now?’ I thought I have my family around me, and they are all healthy. I have fresh air, I can breathe, what do I love doing? I love to cook. So I became the executive chef of the Calombaris household. I went back to what makes me happy and who I am, and even as I’m saying it, I start to get emotional. I’m a cook, I’m a chef, and I love it. I always have.
HM: Did you start feeling better once you started cooking again?
GC: I really did. I started doing things that I didn’t have time to do in the past, because I was running at a million miles an hour, not really enjoying anything to be honest. I was missing all the important things, chasing stuff that wasn’t important. I started engaging in the local community, and with friends from the area. They would swing past the front of the house, and I’d pass on whatever I was cooking. That gave me real joy, to be able to cook and share. I had friends ringing me in the industry around Melbourne who were on their knees and I tried to help those people. Helping them and helping friends, not only made me feel good, but it helped me heal. I had a purpose again.
HM: Back to basics, simple things …
GC: Yeah, and you know what else helped? I avoided reading anything, or watching anything. I did early on, but it just made me feel worse. I was reading all the articles written about my plight, about me, some true, most not, and I sunk deeper. My parents were reading and hearing their son was a wage thief, and that was just so hurtful. A thief is someone who goes out of their way to steal something. We found a mistake within our organisation, and we owned up. I know I didn’t do that deliberately, so I stopped reading that I did.
HM: You said Nat, and the Peninsula really helped you get through?
GC: I really had no idea what a community was until I got down here. I will never forget dropping the kids off for the first time. I was sheepish, and really embarrassed by everything. I was standing there on my own waiting for my coffee and a group of parents with kids at school invited me over for a chat. Wow. ‘It might be OK after all’ I thought. Being here has saved us as a family, it’s just been wonderful, and it’s a wonderful place to be to really fill your soul, slow you down a bit, and make you understand how to relax, stick true to your values and understand what the priorities are.
HM: There always seems to be something positive that comes out of these nightmares. Just hearing you speak, 21 restaurants, 500 staff, on TV, no quiet time or time to reflect on what’s important. Is that the positive that has come out of it? Time with the kids.
GC: Time with the family. I wouldn’t have got it if I hadn’t lost everything. I lost so much, but gained everything that’s important. I would never have been able to take the kids to basketball on the weekends. The day when I knew it was all going to hit the media, I remember getting my brother, my sister, mum and dad, all together for a family meeting. I wanted to prepare them. I’ll never forget my sister crying, and her looking at me saying, ‘I’m not angry about the restaurants and the money, I couldn’t care. We are not that type of family. What I am angry about is we sacrificed for you for so many years because you had a dream to be this big restaurateur chef, and we missed you at your niece’s birthday, your godson’s birthday, dad’s birthday, because you were working’. To be at my niece’s 21st birthday last week, and to see her with all her friends, those are the moments when I realise that I’m so bloody lucky.
I WAS SELFISH
HM: You’ve got to be careful with what you wish for. You thought you had what you wanted, and now realise, you maybe didn’t?
GC:I was selfish togrow an empire, and selfish to be this big restaurateur. I realise that now. I’m not being rated on how many restaurants I own, or how big the cheque is. I’m going back to the values I had right from the get-go, that mum and dad taught me. I’m just enjoying my cooking, serving, and bringing great people together. That’s the position I find myself in right now, and it’s powerful. It’s powerful to know I can take Michaela and James to swimming on a Monday, I can go and watch them play basketball, I can go and see my godson who plays for the Bentleigh Greens.
HM: Knowing what you know now, would you pursue the same path you did if you were 20 again?
GC: I would still pursue the obsession of being the best chef I could possibly become, and I say that to any young chef now. ‘Be obsessed by it, and if you’re not, don’t do it. Do something you are obsessed by, something you absolutely love’. I knew what I wanted to be from 14-years-old, and it’s given me the best life. I have the most incredible network of great chefs around the world. This weekend the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival began, and I’m super excited. Nigella (Lawson) is here and we will have dinner together. I can’t wait to see her. It’s been three years. I’ve got my first public event at the festival, I get to walk on stage and cook in front of people. I’ll be nervous, but I’ll be doing what I’ve always loved.
HM: Is that with Sarah Todd – Signature Chef?
GC: It is. I was blown away, it sold out in 24 hours. I am demonstrating at the Queen Vic Market too, as part of the festival.
HM: What was old is new again …
GC: Exactly. You know what I would tell myself though …. I’d make sure I knew there was no rush. And there is no need to have it all, whatever that means. Just go slowly, keep grounded, stay calm, enjoy every day, and don’t rush. I feel like that’s the only advice I would have given young George back then.
HM: Are you doing that now?
GC: On Friday I got to drive to St Leonard’s with one of my best mates. I spent time with him and the boys, we had a BBQ, and took the piss out of each other as we always have, but haven’t for too long. I was able to drum up how good Carlton was going to be this year …
HM: They might be too … Sam Walsh is back.
GC: Exactly. I got on the ferry to come back to the Peninsula and I realised, ‘how nice was today’. Normally, I wouldn’t have been able to go. I am very grateful for my mates, they came and slept with me the night before the media ramped up. I sat there, I cried to them, and to know that they are still beside me, I am very lucky.
HM: Do you think you’ll do more TV?
GC: I love television. I shot a television show during Covid with Sarah Todd. I loved doing that with Sarah because she was a past contestant. I have stayed friends with a fair few of the contestants. I relate to a lot of them. Doing the Masked Singer was a lot of fun too, but it was daunting. I’ve rarely put myself in a position where I’m not in control. I had so much fun. To see the reaction on James and Michaela’s faces that night when we were sitting at home … we convinced them that we needed to watch the Masked Singer because we were auditioning for GoggleBox.
HM: They didn’t know you’d done Masked Singer?
GC: No. The only one that knew was Natalie and my manager, James. We had set up an iPad and said for the next week Channel 10 want us to audition for GoggleBox. They were pumped. To see that moment where they are trying to work out who the Duster was, and the head of the Duster comes off and it’s me, it was just pure happiness and joy. Just awesome.
HM: What’s Culinary Wonderland?
GC: It’s a really exciting global platform for all things food, it’s bringing the best chefs in the world together, it’s celebrating food in all its facets. It’s what I call the Google for food. We’ve been working on it for 18 months now and it will launch later this year.
HM: Are you worried you might fall back into your old ways, do too much, lose control, lost sight of things? Or do you have a line that you won’t step past?
GC: I’ve got what I call a bucket now. If I fill that bucket, a virtual bucket in my mind, that’s it. The biggest mistake I ever made was not having someone help me, manage me. I tried to do it all myself, which was madness. You are making every single decision — now I have James Henderson in my life and he says no to 99 per cent of things. In the past, I would have said yes. I am a hospitality person, so I was always trying to please. James and I sat for hours and tried to work out what our values were. What are the things that are going to fill our souls with joy? I wanted to cook. In the first month of being at Hotel Sorrento, I was standing on the grill, grilling steaks, and I was a fish out of water. The muscle memory kicked in. We got there, and I’m loving it.
HOW EDDIE MCGUIRE HELPED ME GET BACK TO WORK
HM: You are back on the tools, working at Hotel Sorrento. How did that come about?
GC: I’ve turned the clock back a fair way. I came on board as their culinary director. It all happened by fluke. I was out walking withEddie McGuire, and he was in my ear about getting back into work. He said, ‘enough is enough, time has passed, we want the chef back’. He wanted me to do a pop-up, and I said I had no infrastructure for it. One thing led to another, and I met the Pitt family, that own this incredible institution that has been in their family for 41 years. They have grand plans, big ambitions, they want to double their footprint. They brought me on board to help and support. I am really loving it. I even learnt how to pour a beer the other day.
HM: Old dog, new tricks. I don’t know whether you are a different person or not now, but you seem a much happier, more present, content person.
GC: I think so too. I feel like I am in control now. Living down here has made me realise you can say no to things. It’s made me realise I want to be at home, grill steak and eat salad with my family. There have been moments when I was peering through my curtains thinking, ‘who’s that out the front?’ Now I try and walk outside with my head up and not staring at my feet. I have made mistakes, and I will continue to make mistakes. It’s easy to throw stones at those that do. We’ve all got to be a bit more conscious about humanity and people. We are very lucky in this country, we just need to look at the other side of the world right now. These poor people that have no homes, fleeing their country.
HM: To those that are in a dark hole now, what can you offer to give them some hope?
GC: I’ve been there. But don’t be too hard on yourself. It’ll get better. And make sure you ask yourself – what’s really important? Is your family OK and healthy? Try and be pleased by the simple things in life. The smell of the air, holding the hand of your daughter, your son, your wife, your partner, your mother, your father, whoever it might be. Hold onto those things. And through adversity will come opportunity. You will get there.
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