Chef, judge on MasterChef Australia, and author Jock Zonfrillo has passed away at the age of 46. His family verified his passing on Monday, stating that “our irreplaceable husband, father, brother, son, and friend” passed away in Melbourne on Sunday.
There was no cause of mortality listed. A spokesperson for Victoria Police verified that the death is not being investigated as suspicious. The coroner will be provided with a report.
The new season of MasterChef Australia was scheduled to debut on Monday night, but Network 10 has verified that it will not air this week.
Zonfrillo’s family said in a statement,
“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.”
“So many words could be used to describe him, and so many stories could be recounted about him, but at the moment we are too overwhelmed to put them into words. For those who crossed his path, became his friend, or had the good fortune to be his family, bear this proud Scot in mind the next time you drink whisky.”
Several former MasterChef competitors, including Laura Sharrad, Sarah Tiong, Depinder Chhibber, Minoli De Silva, and Reynold Poernomo, paid tribute to the chef on social media, with Poernomo stating that he was “shocked” by the news.
“…rest in peace chef, my heart and condolences to loved ones,” he wrote on Zonfrillo’s Instagram account.
Colin Fassnidge, Rosheen Kaul, and Dan Hong also expressed their sorrow.
“This is devastating,” wrote Hong; former food critic Pat Nourse described Zonfrillo’s demise as “incredibly sad news.”
“Our lives are diminished by his departure. “Extremely tragic,” he wrote on Instagram.
Network 10 and MasterChef Australia production company Endemol Shine Australia stated in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and saddened” by the unexpected death.
Peter Newman, chief executive officer of Endemol Shine Australia, remarked, “On set, his passion for food and the program was contagious and he was adored by the crew.
He was also an outstanding champion for the MasterChef contestants, always desiring the best for them. The entire MasterChef staff will miss him tremendously. Our sympathies are with his family during this time of sorrow.”
Zonfrillo, who was born in Glasgow in 1976 as Barry Zonfrillo, began working as a dishwasher at the age of 13. He began his apprenticeship at the Turnberry Hotel at the age of 15, becoming one of the hotel’s youngest apprentices ever.
Zonfrillo began working for renowned British chef Marco Pierre White at the age of 17, noting in his 2021 autobiography Last Shot that he was destitute and a heroin addict at the time. At the age of 22, he was designated executive chef at the Tresanton Hotel in Cornwall.
In 2000, Zonfrillo was promoted to the chief chef at Sydney’s Forty One, but he was fired in 2002 after setting an apprentice’s pants on fire for working too slowly.
Zonfrillo stated that it was a failed practical prank. In 2007, the 18-year-old apprentice Martin Krammer successfully sued Zonfrillo and was awarded $75,000 in damages. During the same year, Zonfrillo filed for bankruptcy.
He subsequently launched a number of restaurants in Adelaide, including Restaurant Orana, Street ADL, Bistro Blackwood, and Nonna Mallazzi.
Restaurant Orana was awarded Australia’s Restaurant of the Year in 2018 by Gourmet Traveller magazine and the Good Food Guide the following year. It received three crowns in 2019 and 2020, but it closed in March 2020.
White stated that “almost everything he has written about me is untrue” in the chapters about Zonfrillo’s time in London during the 1990s in Zonfrillo’s memoir Last Shot. The claim that Zonfrillo had visited “hundreds of Indigenous communities” was also called into doubt.
However, Zonfrillo denied embellishing his life narrative, stating,
“This is my life story.” I’ve experienced it all, the highs and lows, and I abide by it.”
“It is undeniable that a portion of my book makes me appear unsavoury at the best of circumstances. I carry shame, not pride, from those years, and it was a significant obstacle to surmount when writing this book.”
His third wife, Lauren Fried, and his four children survive Zonfrillo.
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