 |
| Jock Zonfrillo, pictured at his former restaurant Orana in Adelaide, has died aged 46. |
Jock Zonfrillo, MasterChef Australia judge, dies at 46
Tags: Jock Zonfrillo, MasterChef Australia, celebrity chef, death, Melbourne, Victoria Police, Jamie Oliver, Endemol Shine Australia, Restaurant Orana, memoir
Jock Zonfrillo, a celebrity chef and MasterChef Australia judge, has died at the age of 46. His family confirmed his death on Monday, without disclosing the cause. A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed that the death was not being treated as suspicious. Zonfrillo was due to appear in the new season of MasterChef Australia, but Network 10 confirmed that it will not air this week.
Zonfrillo was described by his family as an "irreplaceable husband, father, brother, son and friend". The family statement read: "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."
Many of Zonfrillo's colleagues and former contestants on MasterChef Australia paid tribute to him on social media. Chef Jamie Oliver, who was a guest on the first episode of the upcoming season, wrote on Instagram that he was "in total shock". He added: "Jock will be so very missed… I can’t believe I’m writing this……."
Zonfrillo was born in Glasgow in 1976 and began working in kitchens as a dishwasher at the age of 13. He worked for celebrated British chef Marco Pierre White at 17 and became head chef at Cornwall’s Tresanton hotel when he was 22. Zonfrillo moved to Australia in 2000, where he opened several restaurants in Adelaide, including Restaurant Orana, Street ADL, Bistro Blackwood and Nonna Mallozzi. Restaurant Orana was named Australia's restaurant of the year by Gourmet Traveller magazine in 2018 and won three hats in 2019 and 2020, but closed in March 2020.
 |
| MasterChef Australia judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Zonfrillo, pictured in 2020. |
In 2019, Zonfrillo became a judge on MasterChef Australia, alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen, replacing the show’s original hosts Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan. Zonfrillo's memoir Last Shot was published in 2021, but some of the stories in it were disputed by Marco Pierre White, who said that "almost everything he has written about me is untrue" in the chapters about Zonfrillo's time in London in the 1990s. Zonfrillo's claim that he had visited "hundreds of Indigenous communities" was also questioned.
Network 10 and MasterChef Australia production company Endemol Shine Australia said in a statement that they were "deeply shocked and saddened at the sudden loss". Peter Newman, CEO of Endemol Shine Australia, said: "He will be deeply missed by the entire MasterChef team. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time."
0 coment rios: