Heston Blumenthal Will Also Not Return To ‘Masterchef Australia’ Amid His Own Wage Theft Scandal
Melbourne restaurant Dinner by Heston underpaid its workers by more than $4 million, and will close this Friday.
The same day former Masterchef judge George Calombaris’ restaurant business announced it was entering administration, Channel 10 has confirmed that series regular and celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal will also not return to the upcoming season amid his own wage theft scandal.
Blumenthal’s restaurant Dinner by Heston in Melbourne’s Crown Casino owes employees more than $4 million due to underpayments, and an additional $400,000 from entitlements. The restaurant will cease trading this Friday, and is expected to be put in liquidation next week.
As a result, Channel 10 has confirmed to the Sun Herald (who were instrumental in uncovering the underpayments) that Blumenthal wouldn’t appear on Masterchef Australia‘s next season, currently in production. The British chef has guest starred for several seasons, and is the centre of ‘Heston week’, a series of challenges inspired by his trickier recipes.
Tipsy Cake, the company behind Melbourne’s Dinner by Heston, have blamed ‘business partner’ Crown for the underpayments, and their own attempts to address pay issues were ignored.
“As a foreign company, Tipsy relied from the outset on the advice given by advisers in Australia and our partner Crown Melbourne, who were responsible for advising on the staff remuneration blueprint for the restaurant,” a Tipsy Cake spokesperson said in a statement to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“As the financial effect became clearer, including the discovery that there were also significant overpayments of superannuation to some staff, Tipsy Cake tried to discuss constructively with Crown, to work together to find a solution which would be in the best interests of staff.”
“Regrettably Crown has not engaged with us or agreed to any proposal which was tabled in order to remediate the employees.”
Crown deny the claims, stating they are merely a leaser, despite charging the restaurant $1 a year in rent, and paying a £1 million ($1.924.461,44) yearly fee to a company who owns the Dinner by Heston name.
Blumenthal himself is not a shareholder of the Melbourne restaurant, but remains attached as chef patron, and is paid by The Fat Duck group, a separate branch of Tipsy Cake’s parent company Lowenthal Corporation. It is unclear if there is any connection between the corporation and the company Crown was paying a fee to.
Last October, 10 announced that all three of its long-standing judges — Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston — would leave the show for its 12th season, replaced by Jock Zonfrillo, Melissa Leong and Andy Allen. Despite the news coming shortly after Calmobaris’ restaurant was found guilty of underpaying his staff more than $7.5 million, 10 said the decision was due to the trio demanding too much money.
In response to the news of administration, Calombaris posted a statement on Instagram today, calling the last few months some of the “most challenging I have ever faced”, and that he “truly regrets it has come to this”. Read it below.