Multi awarded chef and a judge at Masterchef Australia
Achievements

Multi awarded chef and a judge at Masterchef Australia

George Calombaris is a very famous chef in Australia. He was one of the three judges for the tv show “Masterchef Australia” and is the owner of  7 restaurants. In fact, his flagship restaurant, “The Press Club” was awarded 2 prestigious chef hats and was named “Best New Restaurant 2008” (The 2008 Age Good Food Guide Awards). He was also included in the Top 100 list with the Most Influential People of Melbourne in 2008, according to The Age Melbourne Magazine.

He was born on the 4th of October 1978 in Melbourne, where he grew up. He has two children with Natalie Tricarico,  a boy and a girl. As his personal site describes his life is characterized by three principles, three greek words: PHILOTIMO (is our inner personal pride, dignity, courage, duty, care and sacrifice), KEFI (is a feeling of joy, spirit, passion, triumph, excitement, and loving life’s every aspect), and MERAKI (we must always cook and serve with soul, creativity and love…)

He started his career in the Sofitel hotel in Melbourne, while in 2003 he Represented Australia at the Bocuse d’Or International Culinary Grand Prix in Lyon, France, achieving the best score an Australian chef has ever achieved.

He spent two years working at the “Reserve” in the Federation square, Melbourne, where he was was awarded with “Young Chef of the Year 2004” (The Age Good Food Guide) award, in the age of 24.

Also in 2004, The Global Food and Wine Magazine voted George as one of the Top 40 Chefs of Influence in the World. It was in 2006 that he opened his own restaurant, “The Press Club”, which was designed by the famous architect Mill Gorman.

In 2008 he opened two more restaurants in Melbourne, the “Maha Bar and Grill” (having Shane Deli as chef) and the “Hellenic Republic” (with Travis McAuley as chef). During the same year he opened his first international restaurant, the “Belvedere” in Mykonos, Greece.

In 2014 he was invited to Abu Dhabi to participate in the 16-day Gourmet Abu Dhabi culinary festival, as an aprreciation of his cooking skills.

“I receive about 40 job applications per day by Greek chefs. In some cases, their cv’s are so outstanding that I just can’t close my eyes. Let along that the fact that they want to build a better life in Australia, gives them more “kefi” and “meraki” for this job, says Georg in the “New World”.

His reputation grows by the day. The New York Times, at an article entitled “36 hours in Mykonos”, they included George’s restaurant in the “can’t miss” category for the visitors of the Greek island.

 

 

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