They recently had a feature puff-piece on him and now videos are popping up. Always advertised on the home page, too. Does he have a TV show coming up on Nine or something? Seems very fishy!
Because game recognises game, it is a big club and ordinary people are not in it.
Impossible-Winter-74 on
Someone would have paid for it. That’s how these things work
so_schmuck on
Because The Age is desperate
Thouispure69 on
Even before 9 took over Fairfax they did a lot of sponcon. Like with the pro-CCP Chinese news section they use to have once a month.
No idea what sort of comeback George is planning, but he must have something in the works.
choibz on
He’s probably not as nervous as the people who are going to have to work with him
ciderfizz on
The chef, a judge on reality TV program MasterChef, short-changed 162 of his restaurants’ 430 employees, including staff at his Melbourne restaurants The Press Club, Gazi and Hellenic Republic.
circadian_light on
It’s paid PR.
rexel99 on
Because he still has not taken accountability for underpaying staff.
bilbybear on
They also recently profiled ex-CEO of Nomad Alan Yazbek who held up a flag with a swastika.
Why give these people airtime?
I want to hear about innovative, principled talent.
Between that and Michael Koziol’s love letter to Kyle Sandilands, I’m close to cancelling my subscription.
LeDestrier on

stockenheim on
This was supposed to be the Summer of George!
amentiau on
Money.
Pelagic_One on
The Age is a shadow of what it once was. I don’t read any of it anymore.
SWMilll on
100% paid PR, they limited comments on instagram on this specific post.
rinoa69 on
Hopefully this venture fails and he can fuck off once and for all. Absolute grub
blackabbot on
Absolute grub of a man. Wage theft aside, I still wouldn’t spit on him if he was on fire.
legsjohnson on
ever since 9 bought it, it’s gone from liberal to Liberal
RealAusDingo on
He did it himself. Ripping off staff and king hitting people at the soccer
fourbums on
And doesn’t he look thrilled.
Ok_Flow_5839 on
His eyes look dead.
Myk_Ravenor on
If any regular person did what he did they would be in prison.
sness900 on
Bevause he was a real sh$$ human when reached rock bottom.
Hopefully those that work for him get paid accordingly
sevensdre on
Newspapers and “journalistic organisations” are 90% of the time just rich guys getting each other off, I mean it’s all controlled by 3 guys, the age is controlled by the same guy who runs the Sydney morning herald and that took 1 google search to find out
ozlurk on
Controversy gets clicks , easy enough for a TV network to test public reaction
ElegantInflation1202 on
As a former writer for The Age, “it’s paid PR” is true, but not exactly as simple as that.
For sure George can afford a full PR team that would be constantly emailing and calling every writer they know who they think might give a shit about whatever this wage thief is up to today.
I never wrote in a field that would prompt emails for George, but it’s the same story regardless of the “beat” you cover.
As a writer, you just get calls and emails all day long from PR for crap like this. Sometimes I’d take the bait cos I had nothing else to write about that week, or think “people recognise George, they’ll be interested..” or this is rage bait and I need the clicks (I never saw my click rate but I know people who did, and it was kinda important to them).
Anyway. It blows but that’s how shit ends up in the age.
Fuck George. Fuck clicks. Fuck modern media.
Successful-Memory839 on
He was the public face of the downfall of a very well funded restaurant group. This is PR campaign and comeback is part of the golden handshake he got for falling on his sword and keeping his investors names out of the paper.
Ridiculousnessmess on
Ragebait. It’s been The Age’s operating principle for 15-odd years now. Guaranteed there will a Very Concerned opinion piece about this article up by this afternoon or first thing in the morning to piggy back off the rage clicks.
grouchjoe on
I worked for a few hospo companies and most used pay consultants to work out the correct award and rate. It was very hard to get it wrong. You’d have to tell them to underpay staff.
It was wage theft, pure and simple.
Stock-Resource5811 on
Is it a given he underpaid deliberately?
I would be surprised if he had anything to do with payroll given the size of the business. He is still accountable since it is his business but the attacks make it seem like a given that he did it personally and deliberately. I’ve been underpaid by much larger organisations and it never made the news, like payroll system wasn’t setup to pay super on leave loading.
I’m not saying he isn’t a grub and doesn’t deserve this. I don’t know anything about him personally. Just seems like he got zero benefit of the doubt.
He did self report the error but i have no idea under what circumstances. I.e. did his payroll manager discover it and they took the appropriate action (good) or did a staff member discover they were underpaid and gave an ultimatum for an issue the company was already aware of (terrible), or something in between.
What are the facts:
How long did they underpay staff?
Did any staff bring it up well before it was reported and rectified?
Did they know they were underpaying staff and kept doing it?
What was the error? Wrong normal hourly rate, wrong penalty rate, wrong over time, wrong super? The more non standard the more I could see a payroll person stuffing up.
If payroll knew earlier, did they tell George?
truckstop_superman on
Surely there is an up and coming young chef, they can push into the spotlight, instead of rehashing old trash who exploited their position.
I don’t get why the media in general is so scared of new talent. Surly they’d be more reliable then this clown, and could use the pay day more then his greedy self.
Primary_Mycologist95 on
shitstains gonna shitstain
Mariska_Heartattack on
gotta wash that tobacco shop money somehow
visualframes on
There’s enough curious people and not enough well known names in the celebrity chef world. I’d argue if anyone cared to meet the Masterchef judges today vs its heyday.
iphaze on
He’s popped up in my feed recently too. Assumed the same: someone paying for his return to the spotlight
KennKennyKenKen on
People have such a massive hate boner for this guy.
It was a systems error and half the people it overpaid and half underpaid. Fairwork did their own private investigation over 2 years and never labled it intentional theft. Also it was over a period of 6 years, each person on average was underpaid 2.3k a year.
everything owed was paid back. There’s videos of his staff defending him and saying he’s a great person and boss.
But the chronally online are just chomping at the bit to see this guy suffer for all eternity. Fuck let it go man. MasterChef is one of the few things on tv that actively promoted positivity, inclusivity, and didn’t farm drama.
Also some the new masterchef judges are so ass
RonNumber on
A few free dinners?
riamuriamu on
I’m guessing they got a pre-written puff piece from his publicist and free labour ups profit margins so why not?
Inevitable_Geometry on
Are they getting comped at his new joint perhaps?
OneOfManyChildren on
Fuck this cunt. Went to his place that he had in Williamstown and they served my children juice that was fucking fermented
CitizenNo-722 on
lol who reads the age?
gccmelb on
Good chance hew has booked advertising with them. Happens all the time.
[deleted] on
[removed]
Shannonimity on
Every time I have a question about the hospitality industry the answer is always “cocaine”.
trebortus on
Last weekend my mrs and I were talking about him in the car as we drove past where Hellenic Republic used to be. We got to our hotel – Ovolo in South Yarra and he was stood there working the pass. Spooky.
Dredd_Melb on
To be fair, he self reported his wage issues and was basically exiled for far less. Neil perry basically had the same problem and he was untouched. On top of that he wasn’t touching people up like the Merivale kitchens.
I think the media are realising they went too hard on him.
45 Comments
Because game recognises game, it is a big club and ordinary people are not in it.
Someone would have paid for it. That’s how these things work
Because The Age is desperate
Even before 9 took over Fairfax they did a lot of sponcon. Like with the pro-CCP Chinese news section they use to have once a month.
No idea what sort of comeback George is planning, but he must have something in the works.
He’s probably not as nervous as the people who are going to have to work with him
The chef, a judge on reality TV program MasterChef, short-changed 162 of his restaurants’ 430 employees, including staff at his Melbourne restaurants The Press Club, Gazi and Hellenic Republic.
It’s paid PR.
Because he still has not taken accountability for underpaying staff.
They also recently profiled ex-CEO of Nomad Alan Yazbek who held up a flag with a swastika.
Why give these people airtime?
I want to hear about innovative, principled talent.
Between that and Michael Koziol’s love letter to Kyle Sandilands, I’m close to cancelling my subscription.

This was supposed to be the Summer of George!
Money.
The Age is a shadow of what it once was. I don’t read any of it anymore.
100% paid PR, they limited comments on instagram on this specific post.
Hopefully this venture fails and he can fuck off once and for all. Absolute grub
Absolute grub of a man. Wage theft aside, I still wouldn’t spit on him if he was on fire.
ever since 9 bought it, it’s gone from liberal to Liberal
He did it himself. Ripping off staff and king hitting people at the soccer
And doesn’t he look thrilled.
His eyes look dead.
If any regular person did what he did they would be in prison.
Bevause he was a real sh$$ human when reached rock bottom.
Hopefully those that work for him get paid accordingly
Newspapers and “journalistic organisations” are 90% of the time just rich guys getting each other off, I mean it’s all controlled by 3 guys, the age is controlled by the same guy who runs the Sydney morning herald and that took 1 google search to find out
Controversy gets clicks , easy enough for a TV network to test public reaction
As a former writer for The Age, “it’s paid PR” is true, but not exactly as simple as that.
For sure George can afford a full PR team that would be constantly emailing and calling every writer they know who they think might give a shit about whatever this wage thief is up to today.
I never wrote in a field that would prompt emails for George, but it’s the same story regardless of the “beat” you cover.
As a writer, you just get calls and emails all day long from PR for crap like this. Sometimes I’d take the bait cos I had nothing else to write about that week, or think “people recognise George, they’ll be interested..” or this is rage bait and I need the clicks (I never saw my click rate but I know people who did, and it was kinda important to them).
Anyway. It blows but that’s how shit ends up in the age.
Fuck George. Fuck clicks. Fuck modern media.
He was the public face of the downfall of a very well funded restaurant group. This is PR campaign and comeback is part of the golden handshake he got for falling on his sword and keeping his investors names out of the paper.
Ragebait. It’s been The Age’s operating principle for 15-odd years now. Guaranteed there will a Very Concerned opinion piece about this article up by this afternoon or first thing in the morning to piggy back off the rage clicks.
I worked for a few hospo companies and most used pay consultants to work out the correct award and rate. It was very hard to get it wrong. You’d have to tell them to underpay staff.
It was wage theft, pure and simple.
Is it a given he underpaid deliberately?
I would be surprised if he had anything to do with payroll given the size of the business. He is still accountable since it is his business but the attacks make it seem like a given that he did it personally and deliberately. I’ve been underpaid by much larger organisations and it never made the news, like payroll system wasn’t setup to pay super on leave loading.
I’m not saying he isn’t a grub and doesn’t deserve this. I don’t know anything about him personally. Just seems like he got zero benefit of the doubt.
He did self report the error but i have no idea under what circumstances. I.e. did his payroll manager discover it and they took the appropriate action (good) or did a staff member discover they were underpaid and gave an ultimatum for an issue the company was already aware of (terrible), or something in between.
What are the facts:
How long did they underpay staff?
Did any staff bring it up well before it was reported and rectified?
Did they know they were underpaying staff and kept doing it?
What was the error? Wrong normal hourly rate, wrong penalty rate, wrong over time, wrong super? The more non standard the more I could see a payroll person stuffing up.
If payroll knew earlier, did they tell George?
Surely there is an up and coming young chef, they can push into the spotlight, instead of rehashing old trash who exploited their position.
I don’t get why the media in general is so scared of new talent. Surly they’d be more reliable then this clown, and could use the pay day more then his greedy self.
shitstains gonna shitstain
gotta wash that tobacco shop money somehow
There’s enough curious people and not enough well known names in the celebrity chef world. I’d argue if anyone cared to meet the Masterchef judges today vs its heyday.
He’s popped up in my feed recently too. Assumed the same: someone paying for his return to the spotlight
People have such a massive hate boner for this guy.
It was a systems error and half the people it overpaid and half underpaid. Fairwork did their own private investigation over 2 years and never labled it intentional theft. Also it was over a period of 6 years, each person on average was underpaid 2.3k a year.
everything owed was paid back. There’s videos of his staff defending him and saying he’s a great person and boss.
But the chronally online are just chomping at the bit to see this guy suffer for all eternity. Fuck let it go man. MasterChef is one of the few things on tv that actively promoted positivity, inclusivity, and didn’t farm drama.
Also some the new masterchef judges are so ass
A few free dinners?
I’m guessing they got a pre-written puff piece from his publicist and free labour ups profit margins so why not?
Are they getting comped at his new joint perhaps?
Fuck this cunt. Went to his place that he had in Williamstown and they served my children juice that was fucking fermented
lol who reads the age?
Good chance hew has booked advertising with them. Happens all the time.
[removed]
Every time I have a question about the hospitality industry the answer is always “cocaine”.
Last weekend my mrs and I were talking about him in the car as we drove past where Hellenic Republic used to be. We got to our hotel – Ovolo in South Yarra and he was stood there working the pass. Spooky.
To be fair, he self reported his wage issues and was basically exiled for far less. Neil perry basically had the same problem and he was untouched. On top of that he wasn’t touching people up like the Merivale kitchens.
I think the media are realising they went too hard on him.