On the surface, it seems like business as usual with George Calombaris. The chef’s trademark Tigger-like enthusiasm is on full display as he gives me the tour of his latest venture, The Hellenic House Project, a former chicken shop turned dual-level diner in sleepy, suburban Highett, in Melbourne’s south-east. His speech is liberally seasoned with the awesomes, amazings, and wonderfuls familiar to anyone who watched his decade on hit TV series MasterChef Australia.
The Hellenic House Project feels familiar too, and not only because of the name. Downstairs is The Kitchen, a modern take on a trad souvlaki shop that nods to his former business Jimmy Grants. Upstairs, a leafy terrace leads to a relaxed and breezy restaurant called The Good Room. Here the excellent Greek-accented menu displays creativity and playfulness (a delicious take on sushi with raw kingfish draped over dolmades and served with ginger-flavoured yoghurt for instance). And it’s as recognisable to those who’d dined at The Press Club and Hellenic Republic as Flower
