WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT

Coming full circle today, Celebrity Chef George Calombaris has found himself back where it all began.

The once-popular MasterChef host announced that his MAdE Establishment group has gone into voluntary administration as a result of ‘outside forces.’

This announcement comes a suspiciously short time after the group was forced to back pay over $7.8 million in ripped off wages across its operations.

Following the news today, all 12 restaurants and eateries will be closed down immediately with over 400 people out of work or affected by the sudden collapse.

However, the face of the fall has confirmed to The Advocate that he won’t be resting on his laurels.

“Yeah, I’m hitting the reset switch on my career and applying for MasterChef 2020,” said the famous Melbourne chef.

“Obviously it sucks for all of the employees who are now going to have to go and find work immediately in the cutthroat and relatively unregulated hospitality industry to put food on the table and pay their mortgages or rent.”

“But, I’ve already made a few phone calls and they reckon I’ll be able to return to the show as a contestant,” he said.

Calombaris said he is hoping that the heartwarming and feel-good process of progressing through the show will help him rebrand better than his restaurants after the underpayment scandal.

“I’ll nail all the challenges, be a good bloke on set, win the whole thing and then launch a new set of restaurants off the back of that,”

“As the MasterChef winner, obviously. It’s a pretty good plan I think.”

“Just as long as none of the challenges involved payment software or managing accounts,” he laughed.

“Then I might be in a little bit of strife.”