Chef Shannon Bennett’s unpaid bills controversy

Shannon Bennett has established quite a reputation for himself for his work at Melbourne’s Vue de monde.

But now he’s found his getting the wrong sort of attention with A Current Affair reporting three suppliers alleging they had not been paid.

Bennett has quite a stake in the fine dining establishment. Fairfax has reported he has a 35 per cent ownership stake in the business, after selling off 65 per cent of his company Vue Group in 2016.

Greg Kirby, who installed the custom-designed lobster tank at the venue, told ACA the tank was originally quoted at $11,500.

However, he said Bennett allegedly claimed he couldn’t afford it at the time.

As a result they agreed to do it for $6050 — virtually below cost.

“I can’t understand really why he hasn’t paid it,” Mr Kirby told ACA. “He would have made more in tips that day than what the bill was.”

“He needs to pay his bills, so I can pay mine.”

Mr Kirby has subsequently settled on his aquarium payment. The settlement has been done on a confidential basis.

Builder Rob Pavlovic has alleged that he lost money after agreeing to do the renovations on Bennett’s multimillion-dollar South Yarra home.

“He bought a property in South Yarra and he asked for some help in that property and I agreed, and it was all going well until I asked for some money,” Mr Pavlovic told ACA.

Bennett was a friend so he put more than $25,000 of his own money in to keep the project moving, while Bennett was overseas. The home sold for close to $10 million last November and, according to ACA, Mr Pavlovic is taking the case to court.

Then there is the case of butcher Roger Ongarato. He claims he is owed money after he failed to receive payment for goods provided to the restaurant.

“We did a delivery, it was supposed to be COD (collect on delivery), he retained the product and we didn’t get paid. So basically my brother got a call [saying] that he didn’t want to return the product and he didn’t want to pay for the product, said he’ll pay when he pleases,” Ongarato told ACA

“It’s not the amount of money,” he said, “it’s the principle.”

Leon Getler 27th April 2018.