George Calombaris may have made an exit from his long-time Masterchef gig this year, but he seems fairly confident that we haven’t seen the last of him, telling the Herald Sun that he can “pretty much guarantee” a return to TV.
Earlier this year, he was slugged with a $200,000 fine after a Fair Work investigation found that his businesses had underpaid workers to the tune of $7.83 million. This was much higher than the $2.6 million that was originally estimated.
In addition to this “contrition fine”, the celebrity chef was also told to make a series of public statements warning people about the risk of violating the Fair Work Act. While he’s gearing up to do that, he also seems to be plotting his next TV move.
Calombaris told the Herald that he’s certain he, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston – or “the band”, as he calls them – will be back in some form. He’s not sure what that will look like, but he added: “I am letting people who are a lot more experienced than me worry about that.”
After the trio’s pay negotiations with Ten fell through, there were rumours they might move on to a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon Prime. There was also speculation that they might film part of a new series in India, where Masterchef is very popular.
The three are set to meet up at a South African food festival this week, for the first time since their Masterchef exit, so they’ll probably talk business there. Whether you like it or not, it seems you’ll be seeing more George Calombaris in your screens in the near future.
