Nahji Chu, owner of the vietnamese restaurant chain Miss Chu has publicly accused George Calombaris of stealing her restaurant concept and design.
Miss Chu posted on social media outlets yesterday that the Masterchef host’s new souvlaki restaurant, Jimmy Grants (rhymes with ‘immigants’) “owes a lot of its concept and design inspirations to misschu… It's also good George to thank those whom you draw inspiration from; it's just what well researched and good people do.”
Calombaris told the Good Food Guide that this claim is “absolutely ridiculous” and responded to Miss Chu on Twitter yesterday with “Wow. Sorry I haven't thanked you for jimmy grants. I should also thank u for hellenic, press club, MamaBaba, st Kats.” He also corrected her mistake in spelling his name.
“Just wait and see what's on the Jimmy Grants menu on Monday,” joked Calombaris, “A Vietnamese-inspired souvlaki with Vietnamese coleslaw and spit roast chicken. I might call it the Jimmy Chu.”
Miss Chu insists that Jimmy Grants' similarity to her restaurant concept deserves recognition.
“It looks like my designer Kano Hollamby has been in there and designed it,” she said, "It's really annoying when you do something original and it's mimicked like this... in Finland there's a business called Ruler that has a footnote on its website “with thanks to Misschu”. It's just polite, common decency to attribute your sources. It's like writing an essay.”
- Lauren Della Marta
