Celebrity chef George Calombaris has apologised for underpaying his staff by almost $8 million due a combination of back-office errors and inexperience.
The ex-MasterChef judge can't forget the afternoon in 2017 when he and his new business partners discovered the underpayments after a full audit of the accounts.
"I'm not here to blame anyone," he told ABC television's 7.30 host Leigh Sales in an interview aired on Wednesday.
"I take full responsibility for this. I'm sorry."
There was "no excuse" for what happened and that a "whole myriad of stuff" that should have been checked wasn't, the star chef said.
"I truly believe we've owned up, we paid up and we did that two years ago."
"Great restaurants are voted by bums on seats and obviously, don't punish my people, just know that when you come into one of these restaurants know when you pay the bill, my people are getting paid and getting paid correctly."
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म पूरा जिम्मेवारी लिन्छु: तलब ठगी काण्डमा फसेका जर्ज कोलाम्बारिस
