Who was Jock Zonfrillo, the MasterChef judge who died on eve of a new series?

MasterChef Australia judge, chef and author Jock Zonfrillo died suddenly at the age of 46, on the eve of the cooking show’s new series, according to a statement from Australian broadcaster Network 10.

The Scottish presenter passed away in Melbourne on Sunday, according to the statement, which gave no cause of death. A spokesperson for Victoria Police said that the death was not being treated as suspicious.

The spokesperson told Dailymail Australia that they found Zonfrillo’s body at “about 2 am on Monday after they were called to a hotel on Lygon Street in Carlton for a welfare check.”

The new season of MasterChef Australia was scheduled to debut on Monday night, however, Network 10 has announced that it won’t air this week.

His passing was confirmed by his family on Monday, who described him as “our irreplaceable husband, father, brother, son, and friend.”

“With completely shattered hearts and without knowing how we can possibly move through life without him, we are devastated to share that Jock passed away yesterday,” his family said in a statement.

“So many words can describe him, so many stories can be told, but at this time we’re too overwhelmed to put them into words. 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 upcoming season of MasterChef Australia featured celebrity chef Jamie Oliver as a guest, and he said on Instagram that he was “in total shock.”

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Who was Jock Zonfrillo?

The presenter, who was born Barry Zonfrillo in Glasgow in 1976, began his career in the kitchen there at the age of 13 as a dishwasher, as per The Guardian.

At age 15, he dropped out of school and started an apprenticeship at the Turnberry Hotel, becoming one of the hotel’s youngest-ever apprentices.

Zonfrillo wrote in his memoir Last Shot from 2021 that he was homeless when he started working for renowned British chef Marco Pierre White at the age of 17.

At 22, he was named head chef of the Tresanton Hotel in Cornwall.

Restaurant Orana, Street ADL, Bistro Blackwood, and Nonna Mallozzi are several eateries he founded in Adelaide.

He served as the host of several cooking shows, such as Nomad Chef, which provided a glimpse into the food of some of the world’s most isolated villages, as well as Restaurant Revolution and Chef Exchange.

However, it’s possible that his most well-known performance was in the wildly popular Australian version of _MasterChef_, which helped to establish him as a household name there in recent years.

Alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen, he replaced Matt Preston, George Calombaris, and Gary Mehigan as a judge on the show in 2019.

Gourmet Traveller magazine selected Restaurant Orana Australia’s restaurant of the year in 2018; the Good Food Guide did the same the following year. In 2019 and 2020, it received three hats, but it closed in March of that year.

In order to promote the health benefits of Australian Indigenous food, he established The Orana Foundation in 2016. In addition, he received the coveted Basque Culinary World Prize in 2018 for promoting Indigenous cuisine and culture.

Also read: Great Aussie Jaffle challenge: MasterChef Australia contestants face the first elimination of the season

Drug addiction

According to his memoir Last Shot, which was released last year, Zonfrillo tried heroin as a youngster in Glasgow.

He said that drug addiction dogged him for years as he built on his early success.

The book’s description states, “For years he balanced a career as a rising star amongst legendary chefs with a crippling drug addiction that took him down many dark paths.”

The late chef once told an interviewer that he owed his life to food, “It saved my life. A lot of my friends from my early days are dead now or in jail.”

“The thing about being a junkie is that the only way you can get out is if there’s something in your life more compelling than drugs. And for me, I had another addiction: to food and to cooking. That’s what moved me on. That’s how I survived,” he said, according to Dailymail.

Controversies

Zonfrillo was sacked from his position as head chef at Sydney’s Forty One in 2002 after lighting an apprentice’s trousers on fire because the latter was working too slowly, reported The Guardian.

It was a practical joke gone wrong, according to Zonfrillo.

In a 2007 lawsuit against Zonfrillo, the 18-year-old apprentice Martin Krammer was awarded damages of $75,000. Zonfrillo filed for bankruptcy in the same year.

His memoir Last Shot also stirred a controversy when Michelin-starred Marco Pierre White claimed that “almost everything he has written about me is untrue” in the chapters concerning Zonfrillo’s stay in London in the 1990s, according to CNN.

The assertion that Zonfrillo had visited “hundreds of Indigenous communities” was also called into question.

Zonfrillo, however, insisted that this was the true account of his life rather than embellishing it.

He said, “This is the story of my life. I’ve lived every minute of it, the highs and lows, and I stand by it. There’s no question that some of my book makes me look pretty unsavoury at the best of times. I carry the shame from those years, not pride, and it was a big obstacle for me to overcome when writing this book.”

With inputs from agencies

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