An underpaid former employee of George Calombaris’ has spoken out to the former MasterChef Australia star on national TV to ask, “Where’s the money George?”
Orlaith Belfrage is a former waitress at Calombaris’ Hellenic Republic restaurant in Melbourne and is still fighting for her money back and that of others.
“I’d ask him ‘where’s my money and my back pay,” Ms Belfrage said on A Current Affair.
“And also, ‘Where’s the back payment to all these other workers that still haven’t heard anything from him or his company?’”
The sudden departure of MasterChef Australia judges George, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan on Tuesday has led to speculation about the reasons behind the mass exodus.
However, Network Ten says the end to the 11-year run is due to a contract disagreement and Mehigan publicly confirmed it was not about money.
Sally McManus from the Australian Council of Trade told A Current Affair she was satisfied with Calombaris no longer being a judge on MasterChef.
“Look, we think it’s a really good decision by the network for him to no longer be a judge because why should he be a role model?” she said.
“He’s someone who’s been held up and given that position as a celebrity chef and they’re not the type of people we should be looking up to.”
Network 10 chief executive Paul Anderson told Ten News the judges leaving the popular cooking competition was not linked to Calombaris’ issues.
“We’ve been in negotiation with the three guys for a number of months, so this is not about George,” he said.
“The reality is that we couldn’t meet the demands of the three judges.”
