Ex-MasterChef judge George Calombaris reveals true extent of his alcohol addiction
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Chef George Calombaris goes public on how he slipped into alcohol addiction.
Former MasterChef Australia star George Calombaris has revealed how a series of scandals lost his company $3 million and led to a private battle with alcohol addiction.
The Greek-Australian chef joined the cooking show as a judge in 2009 and quickly became a fan favourite both on-screen and off. He went on to build a multimillion-dollar hospitality empire in the years that followed, but back-to-back scandals saw it take a massive financial hit.
In 2017, the celebrity chef was involved in an altercation with a fan at the A-League grand final, and in 2019 he admitted to underpaying approximately 500 of his current and former employees $7.8 million in wages over a six-year period.
That same year, Calombaris and fellow judges Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan left MasterChef after 12 seasons over contract negotiation breakdowns, and, when the pandemic hit in 2020, Calombaris found himself at rock bottom.
Now in candid interview with Ouzo Talk, Calombaris details his spiral into alcohol addiction, which all came to a head when his brother found him drunk in his car one night.
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