George Calombaris’ shock departrure from Hotel Sorrento in Victoria as he finds new lifeline
Celebrity chef George Calombaris refused to answer questions about his sudden departure from one of Victoria’s luxe hotels, as he finds a lifeline in Sydney.
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Celebrity chef George Calombaris has been picked up by a battling Sydney restaurant group after being told his “services were no longer required” at an iconic Victorian venue.
Mr Calombaris confirmed this week he has left his consultancy role at the iconic Hotel Sorrento on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
It was the latest blow for the former MasterChef judge, who was forced out of Sydney’s exclusive Alpha restaurant this month.
But Mr Calombaris has been hired by Jon Agdemis’ battling Public Hospitality Group, which just signed an 11th hour $400 million finance deal to save the business.
Mr Calombaris was sent a list of questions about his time at the Hotel Sorrento last week and again on Monday but he did not return calls or texts.
However, he posted a video on Instagram on Tuesday morning addressing his departure.
“To my beautiful family at Hotel Sorrento, it was a 12-month contract, it ended up being two and a half years, it was awesome and I wish the Pitt family all the success as well as executive chef Beth Candy… love them to bits,” he said.
Mr Calombaris had started at Alpha with fanfare in March, when Mr Adgemis’ group took over.
But management of the upmarket restaurant was handed over to Con Dedes, who runs Flying Fish at The Star in Sydney and View, which overlooks the Harbour Bridge, when PHG hit financial troubles.
Mr Dedes scrubbed Mr Calombaris’ dishes from the Alpha menu, which has been Sydney’s signature up-market Greek restaurant.
Mr Calombaris claimed that despite the setbacks he had already secured a secret replacement role in Sydney.
He did not mention the restaurant, but said he had taken the “position of culinary director at a major hospitality group in Sydney. I’ll be starting next month, so stay tuned.”
The Australian reported on Wednesday that the new job was with PHG.
In the meantime, the former television star was spruiking a $450 a head dinner with his former MasterChef co-hosts Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan at the Westin Hotel in Hyderabad, India this weekend.
He has also been promoting the business class lounge at Aegean Airlines business class lounge with “24 hours of eating” in Cyprus to his 462,000 Instagram followers.
Hotel Sorrento has become one of Victoria’s most iconic venues following a major restoration, including installation of a 30m pool, which reopened in December last year.
“I’d like to confirm that George was engaged as a culinary consultant in a short-term capacity at Hotel Sorrento,” the venue said in a statement last week.
“The decision was made in May not to renew his contract as his services were no longer required.”
Mr Calombaris was once on top of the culinary world in Australia, taking home a $1 million MasterChef contract and running top restaurants including the Press Club, Hellenic Republic and souvlaki outlet Jimmy Grants.
His star plummeted when the Fair Work Ombudsman found Made Establishment, the holding company for his restaurants, underpaid staff $7.8 million.
The company was forced to repay the money to 515 short changed staff and the company was also fined $200,000 in 2019.
Made Establishment collapsed a year later, owing $20 million, according to administrators KordaMentha.
Mr Calombaris was also fined $1000 and convicted for assault of a fan after an A-League game in Sydney in 2017. The decision was later overturned on appeal.
He spoke about the soccer incident earlier this year in an interview, saying it cost him $3 million.
“Stupid me.. I’m the number one ticket holder of Melbourne Victory at the time and I’m walking around the ground to go into the changerooms. There was a group of guys, they were just hailing abuse at me,” he said.
“I’m very good at closing my ears but there was something said about my family. I walked up to the fence and funnily enough someone was videoing it. He thinks I punched him. My brother said to me, geez buddy, if that’s your punch, we need to have a chat because your punches are shit.”
Mr Calombaris said it was a “media circus” and he had “to employ one of the best QCs in the country.”
“You take a bazooka to a knife fight and literally that fixed it,” he said.
“Cost me around $3 million in lost endorsements, it was a shit show.”
Mr Calombaris said he “wouldn’t change it” despite the hit to his wallet.
“I learned from it that George, you’re better than that, you’re stronger than that. There’s one thing to this day I teach my kids. I hate people that tease, I hate bullies… but don’t say shit about my family,” he said.
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