Victoria lodges claims over George Calombaris’s personal assets

The collapse of celebrity chef George Calombaris’s business empire has spilt over into his private­ affairs.

Celebrity chef George Calombaris. Picture: Richard Dobson

The collapse of celebrity chef ­George Calombaris’s business empire has spilt over into his private­ affairs­, with the Victorian government lodging a claim over his person­al assets.

Victoria’s Commissioner of State Revenue lodged a claim in January for unpaid land tax on the title of one of Calombaris’s holiday homes, at Safety Beach on the Mornington Peninsula.

News of the unpaid taxes and claim against the home comes as it also emerged on Tuesday that at the start of last week, Calom­baris’s millionaire business partner, Radek Sali, registered two of his personal companies as secured creditors of the enterprise, which is now in the hands of voluntary administrators.

Radek Sali. Picture: Mark Stewart

Mr Sali believes he ranks alongside the Made Group’s lende­r, the Commonwealth Bank, and ahead of employees and other unsecured creditors that include the likes of suppliers and landlords.

The State Revenue claim on Calombaris’s Safety Beach home, which is owned by his personal corporate vehicle, Trical Beach Pty Ltd, came just three weeks after the house was sold for about $1m. The property is yet to settle and is mortgaged to ANZ.

Calombaris is also selling his Toorak mansion, which is in wife Natalie Tricarico’s name and also mortgaged to ANZ.

It is believed that the chef and fallen TV star plans to retain another Mornington Peninsula home, at Arthurs Seat, also owned by Trical. The home was bought in mid-2018 for $2.2m and is owned outright.

The news comes as the scandal over staff underpayments at the Made Establishment empire was blamed on Tuesday for the 50 per cent drop in patronage at key restauran­ts after attempts to re-launc­h the brand.

As many as 400 staff — most casual — are set to lose their jobs after the Calombaris food empire blew up.

George Calombaris house up for sale in Toorak.

Commonwealth Bank is believed to be owed less than $10m, with few assets left to retrieve the debt. Administrators were rushing on Tuesday night to strike deals to ­enable key parts of the business to reopen under different ownership but there could be as few as five days for any deals to be struck.

Administrator Craig Shepard, from KordaMentha, said on Monday up to 15 entities had expressed interest in some assets.

“Obviously we’d like to see the venues continue,” Mr Shepard said.

The Jimmy Grants Greek street-food chain could possibly be sold as a whole but negoti­ations were at a very early stage.

“We really need to move quickly,” Mr Shepard said, adding it was feasible that assets could be sold and turned around by a new owner in less than a week.

Matt Wilkinson, of Crofter Dining Room, is expected to try to take over the restaurant in Melbourne­’s inner north, with a view to reopening as early as the weekend.

Jimmy Grants, one of the chef’s restaurants in Richmond. Picture: David Geraghty

Wilkinson praised Calombaris as a pioneer in the food industry. “George has been a long-term friend of mine,’’ he told The Australian. “I joined Made Establishment knowing that my good friend was a leader and I was proud of being part of it.

“He’s alway­s had the best of intentions at heart.’’

Cash flow was starved after the 2017 scandal in which the group failed to pay nearly $8m in wages and benefits owed to staff. Staff were repaid their wages and superannuation at the weekend. However, leave for roughly 100 staff who will continue in the business is yet to be paid.

Employers have said unions should “bear much of the opprobrium” for the collapse of the empire and the loss of hundreds of jobs as they overinflated employ­ee underpayments and branded companies as “thieves”.

Additional reporting: Ewin Hannan