George Calombaris is a world-renowned chef, restaurateur, TV personality and founder of Culinary Wonderland, but he didn’t make up the word ‘gusto.’ He just lives it every single day.

This is remarkable since the guy is a survivor of the sort of annus horribilis that might even turn a British Royal ashen-faced.

There was the pile-on after the staff back payment scandal, the closure of his famous eateries, an inexplica-ble biffo moment at the A-League footy and then surrendering his tasting spoons on Masterchef with the rest of the original and much-loved judges.

Oh, and then along came COVID, resulting in Melbourne being the most locked down city in the world. No one was eating out in Australia’s food capital.

Calombaris didn’t realise it at the time but all these big life changes were simply laying the foundation for his newest and most exciting venture yet. Culinary Wonderland is an ambitious start-up which brings together some of Australia’s best chefs, and other global food icons, into your kitchens and living rooms, at any time of the day.

“Culinary Wonderland was like a brain fart during a tumultuous time in my life,” he explains, over the phone from his Melbourne headquarters where he will soon pause the interview to quickly taste a dressing.

“I went from having 20 venues and hundreds of staff to basically wondering what am I going to do with myself.”

His ‘a-ha’ moment came one day after he had answered yet another call from a mate wanting cooking advice.

“People are always calling me up on a daily basis for instructions on how to do things like slow cook lamb or how to find a table in a hot restaurant and I thought why not offer all this as a service?”

The Culinary Wonderland concept began to come to life with a little help from his friends.

“My manager was very excited by it and then one of the greatest chefs that Australia has ever produced, Shannon Bennett (Vue de Monde) came on board as a co-founder,” he says, excitedly.

“We’ve currently signed on 95 global chefs, so we’re going to offer recipes, we’ll have 24-hour TV and a marketplace. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you can still get access,” he says.

Australia, is of course, its home.

He also plans to help local chefs, particularly young chefs, to take ownership of their recipes in the same way that a composer might own a sheet of music.

Calombaris describes it “as a renumeration charge like Spotify.”

He’s actually starting a hospitality revolution.

“Culinary Wonderland is a bit of a beast … and beyond my wildest dreams. but thankfully there’s now a lot more smarter people involved with it than me.”

“Look, my journey has just started up again,” he explains.

”I’m 45 years old and I’m looking forward to where it takes me as I plan to live to at least 90.”

But he hasn’t given up on his daily life as a chef.

Calombaris, who once had 20 restaurants, now concentrates on just one. The Hellenic House Project in Highett, in Melbourne’s south-east, has already been awarded one hat, in the prestigious Good Food Guide. It showcases his creativity and charming approach to hospitality with a layoutthat resembles a Greek home. There’s the Good Room for special occasion dining, a souvlaki bar downstairs called The Kitchen, as well as areas designated The Balcony and The Back Yard. It’s a love letter to his Greek and Aussie culture from the bottom of his “Hellenic heart.”

Typically modest, he describes it as “a great little family restaurant” with a small team behind it.

”They’re good humans,” he says proudly. “If I can influence them in their lives, good, bad or ugly, I feel that’s important as well. It’s not always about high fiving each other. There has to be tough conversations and feedback that’s often critical.

“But most of all, it’s about always being honest in your approach. The best giftthat anyone can give me is honesty back.”

He says that one of his greatest influences in life is his “super-hero” father, Jim Calombaris, who died at the end of November following a long illness.

READ ABOUT HELLENIC HOUSE PROJECT

“Dad was instrumental in teaching us all resilience and to never give up. To be a lion and a warrior, never to complain, to have tenacity and to love this gift of life,”he says.

Calombaris has now added to this by actively demonstrating to those closest to him that it’s okay to be vulnerable and to show emotion “because life can be tough but it’s how you deal with it that matters.”

He comments that his approach to life is spiritual, rather than religious and he’s also a big believer in fate.

“I feel that there’s something out there and it’s all written for us. So, when our time is up, it’s up. That’s why we just have to be grateful for what we have.

“Many of us run a million miles an hour and we always want more. I think I’m absolutely pretty bloody lucky. I have a lovely family including two beautiful kids and they’resuper healthy,so l’m a blessed man,”hesays.

You really can’t bottle what George Calombaris has, just in the same way that ‘gusto’ cannot be contained. But we can all witness it being unleashed now amid the audacious spectacle of Culinary Wonderland.