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#AceFoodDesk says God Bless RIP Jock Zonfrillo remembered as ‘generous’ chef and influential member of Australia’s culinary landscape

Chef and MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo is being remembered as an incredible professional who made a huge influence on Australia’s culinary community.

Zonfrillo was born in Glasgow, Scotland, as Barry Zonfrillo to a Scottish mother and an Italian father who migrated from a coastal village in the Italian region of Lazio.

His career began at 15 years of age in Scotland’s country house hotels and he soon moved to London where he worked with high-profile chefs, including Marco Pierre White, according to The Orana Foundation.

He moved to Australia in the 1990s at the age of 20 and spent a year at Sydney’s Restaurant 41, before he returned to the United Kingdom.

However, Zonfrillo later moved to Adelaide in 2000, where he became interested in Aboriginal culture and food, and opened the acclaimed fine-dining Restaurant Orana and Bistro Blackwood. 

But his ventures weren’t without controversy: He placed both businesses into voluntary administration in October 2020, and paid $90,000 to settle the debts. 

The chef was programming director of Tasting Australia — one of Australia’s largest food festivals — from 2016 to 2019.

He was best known as a host and judge on the hit show MasterChef and became one of the faces of the Channel 10 program in 2019.

The day Zonfrillo decided to become a chef

Zonfrillo set up The Orana Foundation, which aimed to create an Indigenous food database.

The foundation’s website said it aimed “to preserve Indigenous food knowledge … and verbally pass it down through generations”.

In his autobiography, Zonfrillo detailed overcoming a heroin addiction formed in his teenage years, and credited cooking as playing a key role in turning his life around.Jock Zonfrillo is survived by his wife, Lauren, and four children.(Instagram: @zonfrillo)none

Zonfrillo died in Melbourne, MasterChef Australia confirmed on Monday afternoon.

Victoria Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, but have not revealed a cause.

In an interview with ABC Radio Perth’s Geoff Hutchison in August 2021, Zonfrillo said he remembered the day he decided he wanted to be a chef.

“I had got this job part-time washing dishes in a local restaurant, and one day one of the chefs had a motorbike accident and he obviously didn’t come to work,” he said.

“The head chef said, ‘We are one chef down and I need somebody to cook veg tonight and I want you to do it.’

“I said, ‘OK I’ll do it on two conditions: You give me a pay rise, and two, I never have to wash dishes again.’

“Obviously, I was a cheeky little bugger, but that was it. I got drafted into the kitchen and I was being taught by these two female chefs who were tough but so good at cooking.

“There was this atmosphere that you were in the middle of extreme passion, and excitement, and then customers who were all dolled up, dressed up, sticking their head in the kitchen door thanking the chef for a great meal.

“I just thought, ‘This is it. This is the first time I’ve felt that I was a critical part of anything … and it feels good.’” 

Chef ‘greatly loved’ in and out of the kitchen

He said only his mother called him “Barry”.

“I was always getting grounded for something, you know, nicking fags out of Nanna’s cigarette packet and smoking them on the fly,” he had recalled.

“I didn’t grow up in poverty … My mum and dad were perfectly middle classed and they worked really, really hard to make sure that we had everything.”

Celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver took to social media to express their sadness at the news of his death.

“Saddened by the devastating news of Jock Zonfrillo’s passing. I truly enjoyed the time we spent together on MasterChef in Australia,” Ramsay said.

“In total shock to hear of the sudden death of chef Jock Zonfrillo … Jock was very generous with his time and spirit in the show and will be so very missed,” Oliver said on Twitter.

Tasting Australia festival co-director, Darren John Robertson, said Zonfrillo showcased South Australia’s culinary culture to the world. 

“Orana was huge. It arguably put South Australia on the map in the … culinary world for what he was doing with native Australian ingredients and fine dining,” Robertson said.

“He was greatly loved, in and out of the kitchen, for what he stood for.

“He’s obviously a household name now but, in my industry, he was a guy that was incredibly well respected, an incredible chef and he was a friend.”

Jock Zonfrillo: MasterChef Australia host dies suddenly, aged 46 according to Tiffanie Turnbull BBC News, Sydney

Award-winning chef and MasterChef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo has died suddenly, aged 46.

The Scotsman worked in renowned restaurants around the world before opening his own in Australia.

His death was confirmed by broadcaster Network 10 on the day the 2023 season premiere of MasterChef was set to air.

Zonfrillo is survived by his wife Lauren Fried and four children, who said in a statement their hearts were “shattered”.

“For those who crossed his path, became his mate, or were lucky enough to be his family, keep this proud Scot in your hearts when you have your next whisky,” the family said.

Zonfrillo was found dead at a house in Melbourne when police conducted a welfare check in the early hours of Monday morning. Victoria Police said the death is not being treated as suspicious.

His death has sparked an outpouring of grief from figures in the culinary and entertainment world. 

Celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, as well as a host of former Masterchef contestants led the tributes. 

Oliver, who had been due to appear in the season opener posted a picture to Instagram of him with Zonfrillo and the two other judges, Melissa Leong and Andy Allen, on set.

“I’m in total shock to wake up to the sudden death of [Jock].. we had the best time working together for this year’s MasterChef,” he wrote.

Ramsay wrote on Twitter: “Saddened by the devastating news… I truly enjoyed the time we spent together on MasterChef in Australia”.

Network 10 also paid tribute to the star, saying Zonfrillo’s charisma, passion and wicked sense of humour had inspired a nation of home cooks. MasterChef – which is pre-recorded – will not air this week as planned, it said.

Born in Glasgow in 1976, Zonfrillo began working in kitchens at 12. At 15, he became one of the youngest-ever apprentices to work at luxury Scottish resort, The Turnberry Hotel.

Two years later he started working for Michelin-starred British chef Marco Pierre White at his famous Hyde Park Hotel.

But despite his burgeoning career, Zonfrillo said he became broke, homeless and addicted to heroin in his teenage years. He wrote at length about his struggles with drug addiction in his 2021 memoir, Last Shot. 

He said he turned a new leaf with a move to Australia in 2000, and went on to open several restaurants. His most successful was Adelaide’s award-winning Restaurant Orana, which opened in 2013.

In 2019, the presenter was announced as part of an all new host line-up for MasterChef Australia.

But Zonfrillo’s career was not without controversy. Orana closed in 2020 with debts of millions of dollars, and Last Shot was criticised as inaccurate by former colleagues, including Marco Pierre White.

The 46-year-old is survived by his wife and four children.

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