The restaurant empire of former MasterChef judge George Calombaris has been put into voluntary administration, with most venues required to stop trading immediately.
KordaMentha, an advisory and investment firm, has been appointed as administrators of 22 companies in Calombaris’ Made Establishment group.
According to a statement from KordaMentha this afternoon, “The appointment excludes the Yo-Chi operations which will continue to trade as usual.”
“All other venues have stopped trading immediately. Employees have been paid all outstanding wages and superannuation up to the date of the appointment.”
Made was founded by Calombaris 13 years ago and currently operates 12 restaurants and food venues in Melbourne.
George Calombaris appeared on the ABC in 2019 to explain himself. Post continues below video.
Calombaris shared his “deep sadness and regret” earlier today on Instagram.
“To all my team, I truly regret it has come to this. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your loyalty and friendship,” he wrote.
Top Comments
I feel very sad for everyone involved in this. I think the under payment was an honest mistake, which he tried to fix. Now all his staff are without a job... no winners in this story.
An "innocent mistake"? I hope you're joking. It's not hard to pay your staff for the hours they worked. He couldn't even manage to properly pay his staff dismal award wages for how long? Clocking up the debt he did meant he was a con-artist. He has been earning millions each year for 11 years just hosting Masterchef, yet he couldn't afford a decent accountant to properly manage his multi-million dollar business?
Give me a break.
I've worked in hospitality and it's a whole other ball-game of abuse - The industry needs a huge reality check.
I doubt any of his staff were given redundancy packages.
He got too big for his boots, too soon. He thought he was invincible and a "celebrity chef".
Very self-centred announcement there - all about George's feelings. How about those poor sods who are all out of a job? I doubt they've got a Toorak property to hock while they try to find work somewhere else.
He referenced his “team” twice in the announcement. I think it sounded very genuine.
Yeah, sorry team - you're all unemployed and I'm so sad about that. Please bear in mind how gutted I am and give me privacy while I get over these feelings after I came to a financial decision which benefited me and my creditors the most.
Yep. He'll keep his personal wealth whilst his staff struggle to make ends meet while they try find new jobs. Then he'll start a new restaurant and keep making money, no regard for the many individuals and families that were sesriously financially devastated by the sudden loss of their job.