120 George Calombaris The Masterchef_S Rise Fall Comeback

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Hi, I'm Michelle Bernstein, an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and mom.

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I'm Mike Boris and this is Straight Talk.

Wage thief. Fuck, it broke me.

It was horrible. Really bad.

The claim was you underpaid people. What happened?

We did a full audit and at the time we found we overpaid 51% of our workforce.

We underpaid 49%.

We went to fair work.

This is what's happened.

We're fixing it.

We just want to be open and honest with you.

It was the perfect opportunity for certain organisations to use me as a pin-up boy.

And it was the most fucking horrible time of my life.

My wife getting absolutely hounded at the supermarket.

My poor niece and nephews, you know, at school getting teased.

Serious?

Horrible, you know.

You got yourself a bit of shit over at the soccer, at the football?

There was a group of guys and they were just hailing abuse at me.

But there was something said about my family.

And I walked up to the fence.

And I've, well, he thinks I punched him.

My brother said, geez, buddy, if that was your punch, we need to have a chat.

Because your punches are really shit.

I just worked out that nothing else mattered but my family.

And focus on them.

And I just went back to what I know, which is cooking.

I'm honoured, you know, that I'm sitting here.

But also knowing that, you know, you're half Greek, which is, I think it's the top half.

Yeah, you're the good looking part.

George Cullen-Barr has been too long, but welcome to Straight Talk, mate.

I'm so excited to be here.

And congratulations on everything you've done, mate.

Thank you.

This is so cool.

And I appreciate your book, your signing the book.

By the way, I have had, maybe there was a book before this one.

It doesn't look like this one.

It's definitely different.

It's sitting in the back of my office in Chifley in the city here.

Yeah.

And I've got it on a stack of books from various well-known chefs in Australia.

And the only one that doesn't have a signature in it is from you.

Oh, that's very kind.

So I'm now going to replace it with this one.

And I might even send the other one down to you to get it assigned.

And it's a thrill for me to have all the other chefs that are not Greeks, right?

They're all good, but it's a big thrill for me to have a Greek boy in here, right?

I'm very happy.

Seriously, I am.

And we will talk about Greek cooking, if you don't mind a little bit,

because like all Greek boys, I can cook.

I love that.

And most Greek men can cook.

Most people don't know that.

Yeah.

I've got four sons.

They can all cook.

That's so good.

And it's important to learn to cook.

My dad was a cook, not a chef, a cook.

Yeah.

And his dad, when he came to Australia just after the war, the second war,

had a restaurant.

And that's what Greeks did.

Yeah.

And it's pretty fucking important to remember that heritage that we have.

So, but let's just go back a little bit.

George Kalambaras.

Grew up in Melbourne?

Yep.

Born and bred.

Mom and dad both Greek?

Dad migrated in 55.

My granddad Greek from the island of Lemnos and my grandmother Italian.

But dad was born in Egypt.

Yeah.

A lot of Greeks were.

Yeah.

Dad spoke five languages.

Dad actually passed away a couple months ago.

Oh, sorry to hear that.

Yeah.

No, thank you.

You know, so more than ever now, I'm definitely standing on the shoulder of a giant.

And I've got a lot to.

Conquer in the second half of my life.

Yeah.

And.

Because me and my mom, born in Cyprus.

So she's a Montse Brit?

Yep.

Yeah.

She came out during the invasion.

She, my, my, my grandmother fleed Cyprus because of the Turkish invasion of that part, that

part of Cyprus.

So the top of Cyprus.

Yeah, yeah.

The top of Cyprus, yeah.

Came to Australia.

And the, the, the first story that lands in my head is when they got off the boat, she

had a, my grandmother had a baulo, which is the big wooden box.

And in there was a mortar and pestle.

That got confiscated because they thought it was a weapon.

Really?

Yeah.

Here in Australia?

Yeah, here in Melbourne.

In Melbourne.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's, it's interesting.

So your grandmother and your mother's got a IOU on the end of their name, something

Georgie or something.

What was it?

She was a Loizu.

Yeah, Loizu.

I knew.

On the end of it.

So yeah, yeah.

But obviously now, well, she's a Cullumbarus, but yeah, no, it's great migrant stories.

Worked their asses off.

Dad had a, dad was an engineer.

But had independent supermarkets.

And our job on a Saturday was to scrape the specials off, my brother and I, and put the

new ones on.

And it was in Noble Park, a shitty area of Melbourne.

Dangerous.

So we learnt the most valuable, and what I say to my kids now, two words, hard work.

Yeah, totally.

Underdone though.

We don't talk about it enough.

Talent, talent without hard work is like a fricking tree without roots.

It's just a piece of wood.

Yeah.

So you can be as talented as you want, but it's hard work.

It's repetition.

It's day and night.

You know, it's, if you love it, you'll do it.

And never given up.

And just being there for a hundred years, if you can.

I will never give up.

Yeah.

And I, it's, it's Melbourne, obviously, not obviously, but to a lot of people don't know

this, but Melbourne has the, I think, the stack could be still correct, I hope, the

second largest Greek community outside of Greece.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Some, somewhat, some say 800,000 Greeks or people of Hellenic heritage.

Live in Melbourne, that's an enormous catchment of people and that the culture, it's a bit

different here in Sydney, but the culture that the Greek people bring, apart from the

type of food we're talking about, is this notion of cooking, actually, as it's not just

the food, it's the process of cooking and cooking with your friends and, you know, getting

everybody involved.

And it's not just, oh, we just bring it out here and put it on your, on your table.

Yeah.

It's the process of doing the cooking and talking about the food and aunties and uncles

competing with each other or aunties, particularly when it comes to dessert, who's got, who can

make the best galaktaburka or whatever, blah, blah.

Everyone's got a different formula.

Everybody thinks they're better than the other one.

And it's, but it's friendly too, at the same time, you know, and big events like Easter

and, you know.

Cospende Martillo, which is.

Zekapende Augusto.

Zekapende Augusto.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a, but it's a day where you actually have a particular.

A particular meal, like as a particular type of food you eat.

And I, I guess I wanted to talk to you as growing up as a kid.

Did you ever think to yourself, I just love these food processes and I want to become

a chef?

Was there a thing to become a chef?

I won't lie.

I hated being Greek when I was little.

Really?

Yeah.

Just because I went to a real Anglo school and there was a bunch of us ethnics and we

not fought our way as much as my brother did.

He was 10 years.

He was older.

But, you know, I just didn't feel a place.

Nick Giannopoulos says that.

Exactly the same thing.

I didn't feel a place.

I felt like, you know, I've got a long surname.

My food was different.

So I hated it.

I just wanted, I want a sandwich with the crust cut off.

Yeah, Vegemite.

Not now.

Absolutely not.

Hundreds and thousands.

But there was a moment where I decided to become a chef.

I wanted to be a chef.

Nothing else.

Just a chef.

At school or?

Yeah, at school.

It was year 10.

And then.

I did it.

I started becoming a chef.

And then I worked out who am I as a chef?

So I worked in incredible restaurants, learned, you know, French cuisine, worked overseas,

came back.

And then I had to find my own identity.

Who am I?

Who's George Columbaris as an artist, as a chef?

Because I learned first the process.

In terms of you being comfortable with yourself or did you do it in terms of a branding sense?

Just like I learned.

What I first wanted to do is learn how to be the best chef in terms of process possible.

The skill.

The skill.

The process.

The cutting.

The cooking.

I can now physically put a blindfold on and break down a whole lamb.

But that's from repetition.

Then from there, I started to think artistically.

And then from there, I found who I am.

I had a voice in food.

And that was, I found this hole where in Australia, we were serving pretty mediocre Greek food

to non-Greeks.

The best Greek food was in the house.

And it's like my friends, they go.

Um, you eat lamb.

Am I lucky?

How much lamb do we eat?

We eat lamb once a month.

You know?

Where my father come from, he didn't have any lamb.

Exactly.

Because of the mountain.

And in Greece, all my Greek mates, Greek chefs, the best chefs, some of the best incredible

chefs over there.

Go you Aussies, Aussie Greeks.

What's with all this lamb?

Shouldered lamb.

Like, you know, so I really wanted to open up a place that represented, that could be

on the world stage in terms of Greek and Greek food.

And more than anything.

The feeling of being Greek, that feeling of when I go, I was at mum's on the weekend.

I came with, we came as a family, we stayed at mum's on the weekend, came with our little

bags to stay the night.

We walked out with boxes of stuff.

Leftover food.

It's just, there's a certain sense of generosity and spirit.

You can't explain.

It's wonderful.

And that's the lessons I teach all of my team.

I've only got one restaurant now.

And I say that my mum goes in once a week to make good abiadis for the team.

And it's not about the good abiadis.

It's about her being around, giving them hugs, teaching about phylloxenia, this love,

this beautiful feeling that you can give to people.

Cause I'm a, I'm a servant.

I love serving.

And the minute you realize that as a hospitality person, you're going to succeed.

You know, it's a wonderful thing.

And I think I got that gift through mum and, and that whole Greek community.

Because it, because it's an easy gimme to say, well, I learned the skills, I'm Greek.

So I'm going to cook Greek food.

That's a gimme.

That's too fucking easy.

Yeah.

Um, you actually have to have a deep passion and actually bring the culture of what it is.

You just mentioned, you know, the community spirit, you use the Greek word, but I'll just put it in English.

So like all of us being together, you know, like the, how do we, and food is one of the great levelers, as far as I'm concerned, it brings us all together and makes us enjoy.

We enjoy the smell, the taste, the look, everything, the feel of it.

The, the, the spirit that gets created as a result of it.

And for me, for looking at you, when you say that to me, that you had to decide what type of chef are you going to be?

I'm glad you said to me, well, I'm Greek.

I've therefore decided to cook Greek.

I'm glad you told me it was more about the character of being Greek.

Totally.

That made you make that decision.

Totally.

Why do you think, why do you think, do you think Greeks are like that here in Australia?

And also by the way, overseas.

Because.

Because they come, a lot of these people come from poor backgrounds and the only thing that they had in common that was good, worth celebrating was food.

You know, Mark, there was a moment I was sitting in Athens and fortunately enough, got a family house here and I love going there.

And I'm sitting in a, in a little tavern eating and there's a bunch of guys from Israel.

And we started talking, I'm going, what are you guys doing?

We're buying up here.

I go, what?

What are you buying?

Anything and everything.

Property galore.

Why Greece?

Because it's safe.

Number one, one of the safest.

Cities in Europe.

And he goes, and everyone's just nice.

And I went, really?

Yeah.

I just, you know, I think about European cities, like in Athens for 10 euro, you can eat like a king and drink like you can have a cold beer and a souvlaki for less than 10 euro.

You can't eat, do that in Rome.

Yeah, totally.

And there's a certain energy of the, you know, Greece is not about, or being a Greek is not about big statues and all that sort of fantasy stuff.

But it's about this certain energy, this certain feeling within ourselves that has been taught to me.

And I'm a proud Aussie.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm represented by country cooking, you know.

But there's my, I know my soul is definitely Helene in ways.

And a true Helene, the ancient Helene was a forward thinker, was happy to make mistakes, but never, never gave up.

Where was your first big job here in Australia as a chef?

Look, I got given.

I got given an opportunity as a young chef at a restaurant called Reserve.

And at that point, I was cooking sort of out there, wacky stuff.

And I won young chef of the year that year and got two chef's hats and restaurant of the year.

And that's when things started to blow up.

But the press club for me was that first moment where it was one of, it was my restaurant.

I was a shareholder in it and it was my, I was running it.

It was the most challenging because here I am cooking now, modern Greek.

And if I could ban all Greeks, I would have back then.

Because I would come in going, they're not local mothers.

They're not like my yas.

And be like, oh.

Because every yaya cooks differently.

Of course.

And I would say, I promise you, I can never cook as good as your yaya nor mine.

It's just a given.

But it was that.

And also then it's educating the non-Greeks.

They're like, Greek wine, please, you guys make retina.

It's going, no, we don't.

We've got 292 indigenous grape varieties.

They come out of Greece.

We've got the most incredible winemakers.

Like we do.

And starting to, and the worst thing is our words are long.

So to try and teach someone, is a great variety.

We had to start bending our brains within that team at that point to break this,

this idea that Greek and Greek food is dadziki, smashing plates and lamb.

And that I can't stand.

Like I, I cannot stand smashing plates.

I think that is just so tacky and not,

not Helene.

They don't do it in Greece.

No, totally don't.

They don't.

Only we do it here.

Cause you know, I don't know why, but, and look, you know,

our parents came here, my grandparents.

So they needed to work.

So my dad had a fish and chip shop.

Why did he have a fish and chip shop?

It's not like he brought it from Greece or from Egypt,

but it was survival, wasn't it?

They had to survive.

So they worked out ways that they could survive.

So through things like, you know, small business.

Yeah.

And it's interesting that fish and chip thing,

because a lot of that,

you know,

fish and chip thing was popular in Australia,

not because it was, he'd become,

he'd come from Greek Island where he brought this magical sort of way of

cooking some sort of fish and chips.

The whole fish and chips idea would come off as the Catholic thing or the

religion thing.

Fridays you ate fish in Australia.

Yeah.

And all the Catholic families, which were, you know,

the majority of people in those days,

Friday that you couldn't eat meat.

So you went and got fish and chips.

My family did.

We did it.

We had fish and chips on Friday afternoon.

Like,

I hated it,

but fish and chips,

I never was,

I was never,

I love fish now,

but I was never a fan of fish and chips when I was a kid.

And that's where that came from.

And the Greeks just worked out,

well,

Australians need fish and chips.

Some of the Italians worked out as well.

You know,

we're going to serve them up fish and chips.

That's right.

Or,

and over time we brought out lots of different things like coffees.

And now we've got Greek biscuits and we've got quite,

Australia's become,

well,

Sydney,

Melbourne,

at least that I know of.

I don't know of other places in Australia because I,

they probably just haven't been there.

We've got quite sophisticated cuisine now in terms of,

of Greek food,

but also lots of other types of cuisines,

not just Greek.

We've got everything now.

Amazing.

Could you just reflect for a second on what you've seen over what,

30 years of being in business as a chef?

And,

and you were,

you were on TV and then you,

you've,

you've judged people's dishes,

et cetera.

And no doubt,

you know,

all these dudes who go out and still judge people,

you know,

on the shows.

Just reflect for a second on Australian cuisine generally in terms of what

there is to offer.

Outside of Vietnam,

where do you get the best Vietnamese food in the world?

Australia.

Is that right?

Outside of Japan,

where would you get the best Japanese food?

Australia.

Outside of Italy,

where would you get the best Italian food?

Australia.

We are so lucky because of that migrant movement,

obviously.

And for the fact that also consumers in Australia are open to try.

Do you think that's right?

Yeah.

Like if I went,

probably now more than you know,

you could probably go now into Athens and do something a bit left of center and

they'll,

they'll embrace it.

But five years ago,

absolutely not like,

you know,

try and get a,

try and get great Cantonese in,

you know,

Milan.

It's non-existent.

Or Athens.

Yeah.

Or Athens.

They're stir frying eggplant.

I think that's,

you know,

Cantonese.

So I think that's what goes,

is amazing for us.

So we're more open-minded.

That's right.

We're so much more open-minded.

We're so much more.

I think the only thing that I,

is hamstringing us now.

So people are playing it really safe is the fact that business is hard in

Australia.

Yeah.

To make a quid.

You know,

a restaurant,

a young kid wants to go and open up a restaurant.

Now a little corner shop here.

They need,

I know in Victoria,

there's,

there's close to like 22 different permits.

Wow.

A permit for an A-frame out the front,

a permit for this,

a permit for that,

a permit for that.

And I get,

I'm a capitalist,

but I've got a conscience.

So let's do it properly.

But we've also got to think,

hang on,

you know.

It's got to be viable.

Otherwise we lose our choices.

Do you own a restaurant?

No.

No.

You wouldn't never own a restaurant.

I have.

You haven't.

How is that for you?

Where we are sitting right now,

my two,

my two,

my two older sons ran a Japanese restaurant,

whiskey bar.

Okay.

And it got closed down during COVID.

But I have to tell you,

they weren't making much money.

But they had a Japanese chef or two Japanese chefs and they had all the

whiskey,

but it was a tough business for them.

It's,

and unless you love it and you're absolutely obsessed by it.

And probably in the position where I am now,

I've seen every bit of good,

bad and ugly where I know what to,

I can smell when things aren't going right.

You know when to cut it.

You will be cooked and you will.

And when I hear these people go,

I have my retirement money.

I want to put it into this cool little Airbnb.

It's like,

don't put in a deposit.

You'll earn better interest.

You know,

it's funny.

Cause I'm,

I want to talk to you about this for a minute George,

because it's very important to me anyway,

sort of a conceptual sense.

It's very hard.

Even if you're a really famous chef and got brilliant skills to make money out

of restaurant.

Most of my mates who Sydney guys,

base guys who are well known chefs,

you know,

brilliant chefs,

set up restaurants,

half of them nearly gone broke two or three times every time.

And then they're brilliant.

Is it because they're not great businessmen or is it just tough in the,

in that industry?

It's tough.

There's no margin for error.

So look,

the big groups do really well,

but they're also playing property as well.

So there's a bit of a,

you know,

it's not just a hospitality business.

It's a property business.

You know unless you're a mom and pop operator where you're in there and you're

ruining it,

you're working hard.

You know,

one of my mates back in Melbourne,

I was in a very prominent hotel in Melbourne,

but he's in there.

He's got one place.

He does very well.

But he's in there watching everything,

you know,

because suddenly all it takes is an overpour.

Think about how many skews are in a restaurant,

a restaurant.

There's 300 bottles of wine.

There's,

there's spirits.

There's this,

you overpour once,

overpour twice,

you overcook there,

you throw that in the bin,

wastage,

stealing,

at least the whole array of stuff that go,

that can go wrong.

I'm not saying that happens in every restaurant,

but you've got to be,

you've got to be all over it.

There's no room for error.

Also fad errors.

You're the fad at the moment.

Yep.

And then Joe opens one down the road.

They will leave you and they go down the road.

Of course.

I mean,

that's,

is that a big factor?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's why you've got to be careful.

Look,

most,

you've got to think sustainably and what is sustainable.

Well,

there's obviously those aspirational restaurants,

you know,

the,

the keys of the world,

you know,

Aria.

They're being up forever.

You know,

they,

but,

and they're aspirational.

And are you,

they're beautiful.

Like,

you know,

I once every two years when I'm in Sydney,

you know,

I'll ring up Matt and get a spot on Aria and love it.

And because you've got the view and it's the it's your,

it's like going to,

it's like going to those museums where you're looking at everything and going,

wow,

love that.

Love that.

That's interesting.

That's really challenged me.

But the,

the really,

the,

the,

the places that stay around for a long time are good pubs,

good pubs,

big front bars.

They're booze orientated.

Because,

there's more margin in booze than there is food.

Think about it.

It takes four chefs to make one plate of food at,

you know,

at 28 bucks.

And it takes one person to pour a beer.

So there's a price efficiency in relation to the booze.

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There's two events I want to talk about.

First one.

Yep.

You got yourself a bit of shit over at the soccer,

at the football.

Just take me through it.

Stupid me.

I decided it was,

um,

I was walking on the number one ticket holder of Melbourne victory at the

time.

And I'm walking around the ground.

There was a few of us to go into the change rooms to see the

boys.

And there was a group of guys and they were,

they were just hailing abuse at me.

Um,

one of them in particular,

uh,

was getting really,

and I'm very good at closing my ears,

but there was something said about my family that I don't know.

You can't,

there's one thing you don't go,

two is family.

Totally.

And I walked up to the fence and funnily enough,

someone was videoing it and I've,

well,

he thinks I punched him.

My brother said,

geez,

buddy,

that was your punch.

We need to have a chat.

Cause your punches are really shit.

Um,

but to be giving you an idea,

that was a media circus.

I was,

I was in court three times up here.

I had to employ one of the best criminal QCs in the country.

Um,

cost me around 3 million bucks,

lost endorsements.

Um,

it was a shit show,

but I wouldn't change it.

I tell you what,

what'd you learn from it?

I learned from it is George.

You're,

you're stronger than that and better than that.

But there's one thing I,

even to this day,

I teach my kids is,

um,

you know,

the other day,

my son's now in year seven.

So he's on the senior school bus and he was rattled.

Cause the bus stopped in front of a house and he's turned around to these two year,

12 guys and gone,

Oh,

is,

um,

does the bus drop it,

drop you guys off for your house.

And the kid turned around and goes,

no dummy.

He goes,

it's a bus stop.

And James shit himself.

Like he sat back down and was rattled.

And he go,

I go,

you're all right,

mate.

He goes,

you know,

daddy goes,

I thought he was lucky.

He got off the bus.

Cause I thought maybe he was going to hit me.

I go,

we,

we never ever fear.

You stand up and you'd be tall and you turn around and you thank him very much.

Right.

And he goes,

yeah,

but dad,

what if you hit me?

I go,

well now we know where he lives.

Oh,

my dad always taught us.

I might be the littlest guy in the room,

but I'm never gonna,

I'm never going to tease you.

I hate people that tease and bullies.

I hate bullies.

I'm I'll give you 100 points right from the get go,

but don't,

don't say shit about my family.

Like,

so it was a shit time.

It was horrible.

What I put my,

my,

especially my kids through,

cause we had the media throwing out the front of the house and they just,

you know,

and coming flying up here every couple of months for another court hearing.

And,

you know,

I remember the last time a friend of mine went,

mate,

you got to get a QC at the time.

The way Casey's you take a bazooka to a knife fight and literally that fixed it.

But it was just,

yeah,

fuck me.

The lesson is after lesson is for me,

I'm never out in any city except outside of Australia after nine o'clock at night.

And I never walk on stadium grounds anymore.

So that's not a great outcome for you because like in some respects,

when you're famous and like,

you know,

George Cullen Burroughs is like you were very famous as a chef at the time.

You're open to your whole life.

And because you're on TV,

especially your whole life becomes everyone else's life.

So your public property.

Yeah.

Do you think that as a result of that,

you lose something by not being able to go out at night after nine o'clock?

Like you see your mates going to the pub,

everyone's well good.

No one knows them.

They can get up,

they can fall over drunk.

No one's even going to say anything.

Do you feel like that's some,

some loss to you?

Yeah,

look,

I'm very cautious.

So,

you know,

we've got a little crew of my close mates,

sort of nicknamed the Rat Pack because we're just fun guys.

We're careful where we go because there was an incident once where we're all

together.

It was just after COVID finished.

And one of the boys came out of the toilet with a toilet paper roll,

having a laugh.

And we're like,

you idiot,

go and put the toilet paper back.

And then there was a,

there was a person that works for that knows a journalist that was videoing it

next minute.

And that for me goes really,

like,

and I've,

I've worked out who this person was.

So they got a good speaking to,

but it's like,

you know,

I get where I'm,

I respect the fact we're public property.

I do,

but I don't respect the fact when you are rude or if you've got an opinion to

me about something I've done,

talk to me like a human being and we can have a chat about it.

Dreaming respectfully.

Yeah,

that's it.

You know,

so you might not agree with me.

I might not agree with you.

That's life.

That's okay.

But there's,

towards each other and not be rude.

And,

and the second one,

of course,

is the wages thing.

You know,

like,

uh,

where the claim was you underpaid people,

your business,

what happened?

I mean,

a lot of byways,

these are made mistakes.

This word wage thief absolutely irritates me because a thief is someone that

goes out of their way to steal something from someone.

If we open up the,

intending to do intending,

what the fuck would I want to do?

If I've got 550 team members who I love and adore,

who are with,

who are with me right to the end,

why would I want to rip them off?

I'm on television.

I'm well known.

I've so in what happened was a new business partner came on,

bought out my old ones,

a guy called Radix Ali who owned Swiss that they were sold Swiss and,

you know,

wanted to bring in a real sort of corporate governance in everything we did.

And I've got it.

We did a full audit and at the time we found a discrepancy between levels,

pay levels.

We overpaid 51% of our,

of our workforce.

We underpaid 49% and at the time I thought,

mate,

let's just fix it and move on.

And look conversations had at a board level where we,

you know what we should go and see fair work and just say,

look,

this is what's happened where we're fixing it.

We just want to be open and honest with you.

Blah,

blah,

blah,

possibly maybe preventative possibilities of a getting out.

I'm thinking,

but anyway,

it is what it is.

We chose that.

We went to fair work and it,

it was the perfect opportunity for you know,

certain organizations,

organization in Victoria to use me as an opportunities to be a pinup boy.

And it was the most fucking horrible time of my life.

It broke me.

It,

it cause number one,

I,

I wouldn't,

I wouldn't steal from fucking anyone.

Like,

it's just not what you do.

My father taught us you,

you give,

if anything,

you don't steal.

Um,

and if you want something,

you ask,

um,

I had a team that was so loyal to me.

Um,

and it just start,

we,

we,

within us telling them it got put to the media and we're still trying to clean up what the,

the past reconcile the last 15 years.

And it was a fucking shit show.

We had literally within,

within a week,

30% of our revenue group wide from a,

you know,

45 million,

$50 million business.

We dropped 20,

30% overnight.

I said,

the public just stopped sponsoring you.

Of course.

Cause it's like the master chef,

judge wage thief.

Fuck.

He broke me a market.

Absolutely.

Cooked me.

What do you do when that happens?

George?

I don't know,

mate.

Oh,

look,

I hold onto the people that absolutely helped me get through it.

Um,

and some people that I'd never met in my life,

you know,

um,

Jeff Kennett was a great example,

reached out to me and come and see me,

you know,

uh,

um,

you know,

uh,

Eddie McGuire was fabulous,

you know,

um,

my own family.

You know,

um,

we're incredible.

But,

and,

and my poor dad,

you know,

in his 80 or back then,

you know,

yeah,

just probably 79 to sit there and watch tally at home and see some plastered all over the television as a wage thief and getting chased down the road by current affair and just used as this,

you know,

click bait fucking rubbish.

How much did you think was that was the case because of that?

You were like,

let's call it,

I hate the word,

but a celebrity chef.

Yeah.

And I think,

if you weren't that and I think,

yeah,

fucking I thought was,

yeah,

I'm a car.

I've got mine.

I've got ten letters in my surname and we can deny there's no such thing as racism in Australia.

It's alive and it's,

it's there.

Yeah.

And so how do you recover from that?

Well,

how long did it take you to recover?

What happened at that point?

So a month before COVID hit,

we put everything into,

we've been to,

um,

administration.

Um,

and I literally sold our house in Turack,

sold our,

we sold a couple of properties paid,

you know,

just try to,

to clean up everything,

pay as many suppliers as we could.

And we moved down to the coast.

We were two days away from going,

moving to Greece for a long time.

Um,

uh,

because it was just fucked.

Like we're getting chased down the street.

You know,

my,

my wife getting absolutely hounded at the supermarket.

You know,

how do you feel about your thieving husband?

Serious.

Horrible.

You know,

um,

my poor niece and nephews who were older at that point,

um,

than my,

my kids,

you know,

at school getting teased.

Um,

going from the superhero that I was to this,

to the feeling like I would need it to.

And I,

back then I'd go to,

I'd visit before COVID,

I'd visit Port Phillip prison.

I'm help,

um,

first time offenders.

Um,

I felt like I wanted to just go and stay with them for a bit.

Like I was feeling like my mother country that I was born in that loved me.

And I love them suddenly hated me and everyone hates me.

So it was,

it was,

it was shit.

It moved down to the coast.

And for three months I drank myself silly.

It was horrible,

really bad.

Um,

and there was the,

the,

the,

the straw that broke the camel's back was one night.

Um,

I,

I just couldn't take it anymore.

And I left,

I left the house and I didn't take my phone or anything.

And we were in Mornington Peninsula.

So it's,

you know,

it's,

it's Greenland.

Um,

and my best man found me.

Um,

and that was the moment where I went.

Found you where?

Found me just in a,

in a fucking bush.

Um,

and in,

in like this parkland bush.

And that was the moment where I went,

I've got to get my shit together.

Enough's enough.

And I literally clean myself.

I stopped drinking.

I,

the,

the switch flicked.

I,

um,

I played squat.

I play a lot of squash.

I love squash.

Cause I love the idea of being in four walls and it's a ball and it's intense.

And it's,

so I did that and I'd still do that every second day.

Um,

and you know,

I'm,

I just worked out that nothing else mattered,

but my mom from my family and focus on them and start cooking again at home.

And I cooked at home and I sat at these 5pm things and I posted the people would jump on and watch it live.

And,

and I just went back to what I know,

which is cooking.

Does it surprise you though,

that does it surprise you that at the end of the day,

not with seeing,

you felt like the whole world was on top of you and,

you know,

particularly with your dad watching TV or whatever it is where they're giving you,

they're hounding you.

Does it surprise you though,

then?

I mean,

I mean,

I've got a number of supporters who quickly come on board as well.

Once you turn it around.

Yeah.

Did you get a pleasant surprise with that?

100%.

And especially now I feel this undeniable care and love out there.

And there's always,

you know,

there's those,

those fuckers that sit in the grandstand.

You do that for the rest of your life.

Yeah.

You're and you,

and you throw bananas at people.

You do that forever.

That's you mate.

I'll never be you.

My kids will never be you.

And I will always be in the arena.

I might be the smallest guy,

but I'll,

you know,

in the words of Zlatan,

you know,

Ibrahimovic,

you know,

most of you were born humans,

but there's some of us born lions.

And I feel,

I honestly feel that.

I feel like that.

And I,

I feel like I'm,

I'm on the shoulders of giants.

My granddad,

my,

my,

my aunties,

my uncles,

people like yourself,

people like there's some incredible Helene's here in Australia that had done amazing things throughout.

I'm on their shoulders.

And I've got a,

one day,

hopefully have someone like me going,

geez,

I'm on Georgia's shoulders.

That's,

that's how I view it.

And how do you,

how do you talk to your kids now?

I mean,

your kids are a bit older now,

but do,

do,

do,

do you feel as though you've been given another chance?

And I don't mean that in a shit way.

Have you given yourself another chance?

That's probably a better way of putting it.

I have.

And I feel like everything I've gone through has happened for a reason.

And so what are you doing now?

So now I've opened a little place called the Hellenic House Project.

It's in a suburb called Hyatt.

Small little place,

you know,

and I'm loving it because it's quite hands on.

What's the deal there?

It's sort of downstairs.

It's a,

it's a house.

So you've got the kitchen,

which is a little sort of lucky bar.

You've got a backyard where you play backgammon and watch great movies.

Upstairs is the good room.

Literally like the Galo the Maggio in your mum's house.

You know,

there's a couple of tables with plastic over them and it's,

you know,

a little refined.

Galo the Maggio is basically a good room,

but yeah,

go on.

And,

you know,

I'm a,

I'm a,

the culinary,

I sit on a board of a hotel in Sorrento called the Hotel Sorrento.

And I'm loving that.

I'm loving the fact that now I'm no longer the captain,

I'm more the coach.

And I'm coaching these young chefs through not just how to cook.

And I tell them all,

you know,

Seridan,

who's my head chef at Hellenic House,

been with me for 12 years.

I say to him,

mate,

I'm no longer telling you how to cook,

mate.

I'm here to coach you through all your things that you're going to have you

challenged in life.

And that could be the way to talk to media or to what we like to look out for,

not look at,

look out for how to deal with suppliers better,

how to talk to them like human beings,

how to run a business,

how to run a business,

not,

you know,

how to cook,

how to cook an amazing ratatouille.

That's,

you know,

that's up to you now.

And then,

and I'm going to,

I'm going to be a bit cheeky now,

but I heard through the grapevine,

through the Greek grapevine,

which is sort of quite complex up here in Sydney,

that you might be coming in to help out a well-known Greek restaurant here in

Sydney.

Can you talk about that?

I lived in Sydney for five years in the first half of MasterChef and I fricking

loved it.

You know,

this Sydney,

Melbourne shit,

I don't get involved in any of that.

And I'm so grateful for all the Sydney-siders,

especially the Greek Sydney-siders and also the non-Greek Sydney-siders that

flown down to Melbourne,

that visited all my restaurants for so many years and supported me.

And there's so many of them.

If I have the opportunity to do so,

I'm very well put together.

I am so excited to be able to do that if that happens.

Because I feel like I've got a niche up for Sydney.

I really do.

There's some,

there's some amazing bunch of you guys up here.

And I'm meeting more of you guys.

Is it Mario and Bill?

They've got loads of pubs.

I forget their surname.

They got like,

like pubs everywhere.

And no one would know about these guys.

And they,

I was sitting there,

getting these,

getting these stories about when they dad,

their dad was a photographer when he came to Australia and what he did.

And, you know,

you know,

obviously I've watched you from afar mate,

you know,

and I'm,

you know,

I'm honoured,

you know,

that I'm sitting here,

but also knowing that,

you know,

you know,

you're,

you're half Greek,

which is,

I think it's the good half.

It's the top half.

Yeah.

The good looking part.

But, you know,

it's,

it's wonderful.

I love Sydney.

Because,

because,

you know,

we don't have many Greek restaurants in Sydney.

Apollo's amazing.

Apollo's great.

And it's just down the road from us.

There's another one which,

which we won't talk about,

but it's also a very good restaurant.

And a friend of mine's recently take over the management of that particular business.

It's down there in Castle Road Street.

I often go there.

It's owned by the Hellenic Club.

Which is wonderful.

What a story.

What a great story.

Yeah.

And the Hellenic Club,

which is,

you know,

like to be honest,

we used to be old.

There's a lot of old dudes who used to run it.

Now a lot of young guys have taken control of it.

But the old guys are still there and they still love their plain manila.

And I love it.

You know,

it's ouzo,

feta,

olives,

you know,

the real old school stuff,

you know.

But the restaurant itself downstairs is a very good restaurant.

It's well known.

It's called Alpha.

We'll call it out.

And it's certainly frequented by a lot of people

who want to introduce other people to Greek food.

I mean,

I like Apollo.

It's a good vibe.

But I think Alpha is more,

to me,

more Greek in terms of the food and the content,

even the walls are sort of faux Greek,

you know,

sort of some weird sort of

sculptures around the walls and stuff like that,

trying to make you feel like you're in Athens somewhere

or some old ancient joint.

Those sorts of places,

though,

to me,

it's comfort food for me just to go in,

not to eat the food.

It's comfort food.

I feel comforted when I walk in there.

I feel very proud of my heritage when I walk in there.

Yeah.

Does George Kalambaras,

do you think,

George,

that at some stage you would be here in Sydney,

standing up there proudly with your apron on,

coming down and seeing the guests who are sitting down and reading and talking to us

about what you're designing in terms of a menu?

Can you see George being that dude?

I really hope so.

I fucking would love that.

I really hope so.

I really,

as I said to you,

I've got a love affair for Sydney.

And I want to come in here with lots of respect because there's no,

I don't want to be this,

look at the Melbourne guys just come up here and doesn't care about you.

I always say,

you've got to understand where you're cooking.

You've got to understand the community.

Don't just come in here bullishly and go,

this is what we're doing.

And cause I've seen even the biggest chefs fail.

You know,

Gordon Ramsay,

who's a mate of mine,

when it opened in Melbourne,

it failed in,

you know,

six months.

Yeah.

So it doesn't matter how big you are.

You've got to come in with a bit of sort of humility,

understand the community,

and then obviously do your thing,

but do it like your favourite pair of jeans you'd like to put on.

But I don't want to be that suit you put on once every blue moon.

I want you to come to whatever I do here and go,

ah,

I've put my favourite pair of jeans on and my UGG boots or whatever is your thing

that you love wearing all the time and keep coming back.

Well, Morris did it.

Morris Dozzini did it.

Like he did it very successfully and like he was like,

he's like,

he's part of the scene now.

Yeah.

He's a Sydney bloke.

Well, think what he's done to Italian food and the whole Italian way of life.

That I always pay,

you know,

my wife's Italian,

so and my grandmother was Italian.

But, you know,

at the end of the day,

geez,

they're so smart at marketing themselves.

That's the bit us with Greek heritage are getting better at.

Yeah.

We need to get better at it.

We need to,

mate.

We need to.

Yeah.

We want to sit in the kitchen and do all the stuff and be responsible

what goes out onto the plates.

But you're right.

We need to be actually,

the Greek community needs actually to promote themselves better.

And then it's funny,

you know,

Greece is experiencing a resurgence as a country to go to.

It's like it's,

it's every Americans there at the moment.

It's the new Berlin.

It's mad.

It's amazing.

It's like most people don't realize how sophisticated Athens has become,

particularly post the Olympics when they held the Olympics there.

I mean,

I think the German money helped him put in new railway stations and great roads

and great infrastructure.

And they've actually,

they've actually lifted the game.

You can go,

you can go into Monastiraki and get the,

you know,

the typical old school stuff.

But there are some really sophisticated places.

One of the top,

his number three bar in the world is here,

the Clumsies.

The current prime,

it's not,

I'm not getting,

I'm not political.

I really don't care.

I just want,

you know,

but he's progressive.

He's progressive.

He walks into meetings throughout Europe and can,

you know,

stand up and hold the room.

He knows how to deal with things.

You know,

he's going now,

there's what they call the

.

If you spend 250,000 euro,

you get automatic residency.

A golden visa.

To get things going.

And there is so much going on in Athens.

It's wonderful.

As I said,

it's the new Berlin.

It's from creativity,

the arts.

Everything.

It's wonderful.

Yeah.

And if we could get a little bit about it,

and if you can bring a little bit of that to Sydney,

a bit of that to Australia,

because I think we need to borrow some of that stuff,

because Australia,

we've got to be careful that we just don't become a

hodgepodge of everybody else.

Yeah.

Of everybody else's culture.

We need to sort of actually become maybe the place

where Australia can effectively curate the best of the world.

Yeah.

Like you said before,

best Vietnamese food outside of Vietnam,

the best Greek food outside of Athens,

aggressive,

best Italian food,

outside of Rome,

et cetera.

It's best Spanish food outside of Madrid.

Yeah.

That is what Australia could be.

I mean,

and we need blokes like you who have that sort of hankering to be the dude.

Yep.

Or the woman.

Yeah.

I'm leaving them out.

But to bring that here to Australia,

it's pretty,

for me,

it's pretty cool that it's actually quite humbling,

George,

to sit here to see that you've got through all your shit.

You still got the same fucking energy you had before.

Look at the energy you got.

It's amazing.

And you want to go do something good for us,

good for Australia.

I mean,

it's not for George.

I mean,

it is and it isn't,

but like you feel as though you want to do something for us.

The minute you wake up and want to go to work to just,

and your first thing is,

I'm going to work to make the money,

to make money is the minute.

You're fucked.

You're fucked.

You're totally fucked.

I've never ever woken up and gone,

you know,

I've got to go to work because I need,

well,

we all need to earn money.

Let's not kid ourselves.

But, that's never.

It's never been my ambition.

My ambition was always to be the best I can be in my craft.

And that is number one.

And I know the byproduct of that will be make money.

No problem.

That all will come.

Yeah.

If you do a good job,

you'll make money.

So George,

I want two questions for you.

What's the,

looking back,

what's probably the worst moment in your life?

Like just for a moment.

Oh, look.

Um.

We thought fuck this.

Of that,

the whole wage thing,

was fucked.

And it nearly tipped me over.

But I think the grateful thing is the lessons of my dad.

Never give up.

He was a,

you know,

tyrant.

Cancer twice.

Survived it.

Just passed away recently,

85.

An absolute,

didn't show us much love.

And me,

my brother and sister talk about that.

But fuck,

he taught us to never give up.

So I'm grateful for that.

So that's the wage thing was probably the hardest.

What's the best moment in life?

Um.

My kids.

As cliche as that sounds.

My kids.

Especially now more than ever.

Because in the first four or five years,

I was never around.

I was working and Natalie was doing it all.

But now especially like,

I'm about to go to Japan next week to do a pop-up in Niseko.

I'm cooking,

imagine that,

Greek food in Niseko.

And I'm taking my son with me.

He's 12.

And the deal is,

no problem,

take you out of school.

But you ski during the day,

you love skiing.

But at night, you're working in the restaurant.

You know, that's the deal, mate.

And he's like,

you've done that.

No problem.

You know, he,

on school holidays just now,

he's 12.

He worked at the restaurant.

You know,

please,

anyone from Fair Work,

don't listen.

He was,

I was paying him cash in hand.

He's my son.

Um,

you know,

for his piggy bank.

You know,

and he understand,

we sat there at the end of the day with a calculator

and worked out.

I go,

hang on,

you had a half an hour break,

didn't you?

Oh yeah.

And hang on,

I bought your lunch.

So,

but for me,

these are the values.

You're educating him.

Exactly.

And mate,

they get way more than I ever got.

And they go to great private schools

and they get all the best.

And I want them to have the best.

But,

value,

you know,

my dad,

I'll never forget,

when he had the supermarket,

I would see him on a Saturday afternoon,

lights shut,

in the back office,

smoking away,

sitting there counting the cash.

And I went out one day,

dad,

why do you take so long

and you put all the faces the right way around?

He's gone,

son,

you respect every dollar you work for.

He goes,

you guys,

cause,

and I always say,

geez,

that feeling of touching money

is different to tapping and going.

And it teaches that,

especially my kids,

I want them to feel it,

you know,

understand it,

respect what you've worked hard for.

Cause you can hand it over very,

you can tap very quickly,

but it's just that,

you know,

it's a legitimate currency.

You know,

as much as people go,

to boo,

it's cash.

To me it's the only legitimate currency.

I mean,

but unfortunately I'm forced to use other things.

George,

quickly tell me about this book.

So that book before,

Just George.

Yep, Just George.

It feels like a new book,

but it's not.

Before my shit hit the fan,

I wrote that.

And when the shit hit the fan,

my publishers dumped me.

And basically all the books that they had there,

where they were gonna throw in the bin,

and I bought every single copy of them.

And I have them,

and I give them to people.

Wow.

Cause I just go,

and look,

I'll never forget the people that dumped me.

And I get it,

I get it,

you know,

whatever.

But you know,

I'm now in a position where I'm really proud

of the book and I'm proud that I can gift it to you

and gift it to people that I care about.

And you know.

I actually really appreciate it

cause that makes it even more special.

The fact that this was a book about to go out

when you got nailed

and then you went and bought them all

and you still,

and you kept them and you're giving them out now.

That's really cool.

And it says,

Just George.

In a sort of an understated way,

it says you're Just George,

but I don't think that is you.

Well, if you open up that first cover,

it's pictures of all these beautiful people.

They're all from my iPhone,

people that I adore and love,

my family,

you know,

people like Nigella,

who's an incredible supporter of me,

Heston Blumenthal,

amazing people that I've met along the way.

You know,

that picture of me and my daughter,

walking my daughter to school,

you know,

they're just moments and,

you know,

that are just wonderful and I love.

Mate,

it's been,

for me,

it's been a great pleasure.

Thank you mate.

I've always wanted you to,

not only sign a book,

but actually sits opposite me and talk to me.

I really appreciate it.

I really appreciate it.

I wish you all the best

and I can't wait to see you up here in Sydney, bro.

Thank you.

Not all that long ago,

money was simple.

You earned it,

saved some,

spent some,

and maybe invested in a house if you were lucky.

No apps,

no online banking,

no thinking beyond what was in your wallet.

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If you've been listening along for a while,

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