Disgraced celebrity chef George Calombaris reveals he was ‘drinking hard to deal with the pain’ after being ordered to pay $7.8 million in unpaid wages: ‘I thought I was invincible’
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Disgraced celebrity chef George Calombaris has spoken out about being caught underpaying staff in a pay scandal.
The former MasterChef judge lost his Made Establishment hospitality company to liquidators in 2020 after he was ordered to pay $7.8 million in unpaid wages to 515 current and former staff members.
During an interview on Channel Ten’s The Project on Sunday, the 44-year-old said he was “drinking a lot to deal with the pain” after hitting rock bottom.
Disgraced celebrity chef George Calombaris (pictured) revealed he was “drinking hard to deal with the pain” on The Sunday Project after he was ordered to pay $7.8 million in unpaid staff wages.
“There were months of tears, anger and I was drinking a lot to take the pain away, but then I got over it and said ‘no,'” he said.
Calombaris admitted that he thought he was ‘invincible’ and that he ‘could overcome anything’.
“I thought I was invincible and could get through everything because I was taught as a kid, never say you’ve tried and work really hard,” he said.
“I probably needed good management as soon as I got into television.”

“There were months of tears, anger and I was drinking a lot to take the pain away, but then I got over it and said ‘no,'” he said.
MAdE, which had 22 companies, collapsed in February 2020 after the Fair Labor Ombudsman ordered it to pay workers millions in unpaid fines.
Calombaris was personally fined $200,000 for wage damages, but he always insisted that the underpayments were simply a mistake he blamed on inexperience.
The former hospitality chief said the payment error was caught after the company self-reported, but the publicity that followed made it impossible to keep his businesses alive.
His reputation was further damaged when he was caught on camera attacking a 19-year-old in an A-League grand final between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory.

Calombaris also admitted that he thought he was ‘invincible’ and that he ‘could overcome anything’
Calombaris was found guilty of assault and fined $1,000, but the damage to his name was so severe that his conviction was later overturned.
After hitting rock bottom, he moved his family to Arthurs Seat, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, in March 2020, where he has since embraced a new outlook on life centered around family and community.
Now, high-flying hoteliers and their glamorous wives have given the former reality TV star a fresh start in hospitality by hiring him as culinary director of their luxurious beachside venue, the Hotel Sorrento.
Calombaris joined the family business, owned by Rob and Anne Pitt and run by their children, Bridget, Marcus and Myles, who is married to model and Instagram influencer Brooke Hogan, after meeting a famous mutual friend, Eddie McGuire. .

The former MasterChef judge lost his Made Establishment hospitality company to liquidators in 2020 after he was ordered to pay $7.8 million in unpaid wages to 515 current and former staff members.
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