MasterChef star and Vue de Monde owner Shannon Bennett says underpay attacks hurt staff

MASTERCHEF star Shannon Bennett has hit back at claims he has underpaid staff and ripped off suppliers, saying he is speaking out now because the attacks are hurting his staff.

MASTERCHEF star Shannon Bennett has hit back at claims he has underpaid staff and ripped off suppliers, saying he is speaking out now because the attacks are hurting his staff.

The acclaimed Melbourne chef says he has been the target of a vicious smear campaign.

This includes accusations of taking tips off staff, refusing toilet breaks and being chased over bills he claims had been paid.

The storm of criticism started soon after the regular MasterChef mentor paid $17 million for a house in Toorak late last year.

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Staff say the false claims make them angry and tarnish all the hard work they have done to build and maintain a successful restaurant empire under Bennett’s Vue Group brand.

“I must have walked under a ladder,” Bennett said from his offices in the Rialto Tower in Collins St.

World class chef Shannon Bennett at his restaurant Vue de Monde in Melbourne. Picture: Tony Gough

“I’m really proud of hospitality in this city and this takes the shine off all the good work that we do.

“I thought I would just keep my head down but now staff have been hurt and I had to address this.”

The first hit came in April when a program on a rival channel took aim at him over claims he had not paid $6000 for a lobster tank delivered in 2011.

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Bennett disputed the bill and claimed he had settled the matter at the time, and came to a confidential final settlement recently.

He was filmed while jogging as a TV reporter chased him down the street.

A supplier claimed he had not been paid for $25,000 of work on Bennett’s inner eastern suburbs property, but Bennett claimed the supplier had made threats against his family and the family of a staff member, and said they had been reported to police.

Shannon Bennett with MasterChef judges Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston and George Calombaris.

The TV probe detailed a butcher claiming he had not been paid for some sausages, but that was in 2002, and newspaper reports at the time claimed Bennett had questioned the sausages’ quality and wanted to show them to the health department.

Then the ABC last week claimed Bennett had underpaid staff and withheld tips from those who turned up late or failed to pass a “tip test”.

But Bennett also disputed those claims — saying a former staff member who complained was sacked for making racist comments towards a co-worker.

Texts provided by Bennett show that a staff member had called a black colleague a “dumb n----r” and made another highly offensive comment.

“I could see that those messages broke (the co-worker) — he was in tears,” he said.

“I will never ever forgive (the staff member) for that — I immediately fired him.”

Inside Shannon Bennett’s up-market Vue de Monde eatery. Picture: Andrew Tauber

Bennett’s restaurant manager Hugo Simoez-Santos debunked the “tip test” claims, saying a woman who complained to the ABC did not lose any money because he had reimbursed her from his own pocket.

“An email was sent out to everyone and since then only one person, who left early this year, suffered the consequences of this (lateness) rule.

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“When this system was introduced, this one person managed to arrive late three times in two days.

“When the day of collecting tips came, I spoke with this person and I told her: ‘You won’t get your tip this week, but as your friend and because I know everything that you are going through, I will give you my own tips and I hope you learn your lesson’.”

Hugh Allen, who now works at Noma in Denmark — voted world’s best restaurant four times — said Bennett was a key to his success as a chef when he worked at Vue De Monde between 2013 and 2015.

“Working with Shannon was incredible,” he said.

Shannon Bennett on the MasterChef set with Billie McKay. Picture: Channel 10

“Shannon was the chef that really taught me what the best quality is and what to look for with the ingredients we used ... we used amazing produce.

“Shannon and the Vue group shaped me as an apprentice and always put first what was in my best interest, not theirs.”

Property developer Morry Schwartz, who rented space for one of Bennett’s restaurants, said he was an “honourable man”.

“We suffer from this ‘tall poppy’ thing — everyone wants people to remain where we are, no one should excel and when they excel we prick them with pins,” he said.

“Shannon is brilliant, you don’t do what he does without real smarts.”

Bennett’s Vue Group has had more than 5500 workers over 18 years, but only three had made complaints publicly, he said.

Bennett, 42, has come a long way since his teenage years at working-class Westmeadows in Melbourne’s north.

The former Essendon Grammar boy who dropped out at 15 to become a chef is now a multi- millionaire with a string of restaurants across Melbourne and plans to expand into Asia through his Singaporean investors the Far East group.

Bennett’s home life is also busy — he and former Neighbours star Madeleine West, now a successful author, have six children under 13.

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Bennett, officially now the creative director at Vue Group, said he had stepped back from the hours he was working when empire-building.

Now the school run is a priority.

Eldest daughter Phoenix has just started high school, the couple have three in primary school, and their three-year-old twins were in the “drunk midget stage”, he said.

And none watch MasterChef.

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