Masterchef George Calombaris is set to shut down his flagship restaurant The Press Club, and set himself up with a new challenge – to create “the best Greek restaurant in the world”.
And the name for this new fine dining establishment? The Press Club. In a bid to reinvent the dining scene in Melbourne, Calombaris is set to relaunch his flagship restaurant but this time in the smaller space of the bar Little Press with room to seat 30 only. The rest of the restaurant will be used for his lower-budget souvlaki bar, Gazi.
It is rumoured he may charge up to $300 a head to dine at the new improved The Press Club. However, Calombaris is confident that return to his “culinary dreams” is a viable business option for him.
“I want to fuse my cultures like never before,” says Calombaris of the cuisine he calls “Gringlish”.
He will seek inspiration from childhood memories for this new restaurant, such as ‘smashing plates’ – a dessert where staff will shatter a meringue ‘plate’ directly onto the dining table, then build a newfangled pavlova among the shards.
Another dish is inspired by Calombaris’ mother’s constant threats to wash his mouth out with soap: he hopes to clean up with an edible facsimile of a cake of soap, garnished with mastic suds and olive oil exfoliant. Source: The Age