MasterChef judge Gary Mehigan has settled a bitter legal feud with a builder over a disputed $168,000 debt from the refurbishment of a North Melbourne function room co-owned by the celebrity chef.
A writ lodged in the Supreme Court in August last year by builder Robert Pavlovic claimed Mr Mehigan and his business partners had reneged on $155,942 in unpaid invoices and demanded a further $12,000 in interest.
According to the writ, Mr Pavlovic entered a verbal agreement with Mr Mehigan and his three partners to carry out construction works at the venue in April 2014.
He claimed to have worked on the project from June to August, before he was underpaid on an August invoice and then a bill of $124,978 was ignored in October.
At the time, a spokeswoman for Mr Mehigan claimed Mr Pavlovic's invoices were almost double the agreed budget, and that approval for additional expenditure had never been sought.
The venue was spruiked as a "warehouse inspired event space located in the urban neighbourhood of North Melbourne", according to the Big Kitchen Events with Gary Mehigan website.
The dispute was recently resolved at a private mediation between two parties, who agreed that Mr Mehigan would pay about $110,000 to Mr Pavlovic.
Mr Pavlovic said he could not comment when contacted by Fairfax Media.
Mr Mehigan's spokeswoman, Justine May, also declined to comment. She said all details regarding the settlement were confidential.