George Calombaris has departed the prominent Hotel Sorrento on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula as pub baron Jon Adgemis swipes the celebrity chef for a culinary director position with his Public Hospitality Group (PHG) in Sydney.
According to The Australian, Calombaris and a number of his Hotel Sorrento staff are leaving the iconic venue in Victoria to join PHG in September.
“To my beautiful family at Hotel Sorrento, it was a 12-month contract, it ended up being two and a half years, it was awesome and I wish the Pitt family all the success as well as executive chef Beth Candy… love them to bits,” Calombaris said on Instagram.
This is not the first time Calombaris has worked with Adgemis’ PHG, having previously advised the pub group on its Greek restaurant Alpha at the Hellenic Club of Sydney.
Calombaris first took over the reigns at Alpha from founding chef Peter Conistis in March 2024, just a few months after operations at the Greek restaurant were taken over by PHG.
This takeover came despite PHG being weighed down by $500 million debt at the time. Adgemis’ project started to fray after he took on hundreds of millions in debt at high interest rates from a variety of lenders just before financing costs rose.
Some lenders started trying to sell off his properties, staff were left out of pocket, and suppliers were unpaid. The Australian Taxation Office also visited the pub group’s offices in early May 2024.
Adgemis later struck a $400 million refinancing deal with Deutsche Bank, Gemi Investments, Archibald Capital and Muzinich & Co, to save his PHG from collapse.
In June this year, operations at Alpha restaurant and Beta Events were taken over by Con Dedes of Dedes Waterfront Group after PHG made a swift exit. The departure of PHG marked the end of Calombaris’ stint at Alpha after only five months.
Source: The Australian.
