Celebrity chef George Calombaris has revealed he carried contraband into the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! jungle, admitting he smuggled salt and vinegar powder into the South African camp after carefully planning how to hide it.
Speaking on The Kyle and Jackie O Show this morning, following his debut on Network Ten’s reality juggernaut last night, the former MasterChef Australia judge told hosts he had gone in prepared… very prepared.
The big reveal came when Kyle Sandilands casually asked whether contestants were allowed to hunt animals for food.
Calombaris quickly shut that down, saying “we’re not catching monkeys, that’s for sure”, before dropping the real bombshell: he had gone in with “a lot of contraband”.
Sandilands immediately sympathised, saying he would have done the same and that the jungle “is like going to jail or something”.
That, Calombaris explained, was exactly the mindset he adopted.
He admitted he had hidden food in “lots of spots”, prompting Jackie ‘O’ Henderson to observe that he had “got crafty”.
His reply? “I got very crafty.”
When Henderson asked what mattered most, “the number one thing” at the top of his list, Sandilands joked: “Cocaine?”
Instead, Calombaris revealed that one of his secret items “actually looked a bit like that”, but was in fact “salt and vinegar powder”.
Sandilands laughed, realising what he meant: “Oh, you’re talking these little extra little delightful things there.”
But the smuggling, Calombaris insisted, required genuine preparation. He said he “worked hard pre-going in” to plan how to pull it off, even watching Breaking Bad at home, to work out how to do this.
The strangest part, he added, was sourcing the tiny bags to hide it in.
He described going from shop to shop asking for “plastic bag, Ziploc, small ones” and being met with suspicious looks – people staring at him thinking, “dude, what are you doing?” – before revealing the unlikely solution: “That’s where you buy them from. Spotlight.”
A return, quietly underway
Calombaris’ jungle debut is more than a campfire curiosity.
It marks his most visible mainstream media appearance in years, following the collapse of his hospitality group and the reputational damage that reshaped his career.
Between 2011 and 2017, MAdE Establishment underpaid more than 500 staff by almost $8 million, triggering a court-enforceable agreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The deal required back-payments, a $200,000 contrition payment, and mandatory compliance training across the industry.
Although the issue was self-reported, the fallout was severe – including public backlash, calls for his removal from MasterChef Australia, and long-term damage to his personal brand. Calombaris later apologised, describing the situation as a “terrible mistake” caused by poor systems.
His casting is a strategic win for Network Ten: a recognisable name with cultural baggage, curiosity value, and a redemption arc that plays well in prime time.