Jock Zonfrillo (1976–2023) was a Scottish television presenter and chef, best known as a judge on MasterChef Australia. He was also known as the founder of the Orana Foundation.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Jock Zonfrillo was born Barry Zonfrillo on Wednesday, 4 August 1976 (age 46 at the time of death) in Glasgow, Scotland. His zodiac sign was Leo. He was Scottish on his mother’s side as her family was from Dalmellington, Ayrshire, while on his father’s side the family was from Scauri, Italy. He had his schooling at Belmont Academy, Ayr, Scotland and left school at the age of 15. He worked as a part-time dishwasher in kitchens after school at the age of 13.
Jock Zonfrillo was working as a dishwasher at the age of 13
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 9″
Hair Color: Salt and Pepper
Eye color: gray
Family
parents and siblings
Jock’s father’s name is Ivan Zonfrillo, who was a barber.
Jock Zonfrillo’s father
His mother’s name is Sara, who was a hairdresser. He has a sister, Carla.
wife and children
At the time of his death he was married to Lauren Fried, a marketing strategist and entrepreneur. They were married on 1 January 2017.
Jock Zonfrillo’s wedding image
Before marrying Lauren, he was married twice. Lauren and Jock have two children, a son, Alfie, and a daughter, Isla. Their son was born in February 2018 and was born two months early and weighed only 1.2 kg at birth.
Jock Zonfrillo with his wife, son, Alfie, and daughter, Isla
He has two daughters, Ava and Sophia, from two other marriages.
Jock Zonfrillo’s daughters Ava and Sophia
relationships/affairs
He dated Lauren Fried from 2014 to 2017.
livelihood
apprenticeship
At the age of 15, after leaving school, he began an apprenticeship in the kitchen of The Turnberry Hotel in Scotland. Later, he joined the Arkle Restaurant in Chester. He also worked for British chef Marco Pierre White.
Jock Zonfrillo before going to Australia
cook
He moved to Australia and worked as head chef at Restaurant 41 in Sydney for 12 months. At the age of 22, he returned to the UK after living in Australia for a year and was appointed head chef at The Trenton Hotel in Cornwall.
Restaurant
In November 2013, he opened the restaurants Orana and Street ADL in Adelaide and in September 2017, he launched the restaurant Street ADL, which replaced Bistro Blackwood. In December 2018, he opened a restaurant called Nona Mallozzi in Adelaide, South Australia. In July 2019, he lost $140,000, forcing him to close his restaurant, Nonna Malozi. Later in 2019 he closed his restaurant Bistro Blackwood and in March 2020 he closed Orana restaurant. Due to the closure of these restaurants, he had a huge debt of about $3.2 million, his manager Greta Wohlstedt resigned from her job and he moved to Melbourne with his family in March 2020.
Television
In 2014, he appeared as a guest chef on Season 6 of MasterChef Australia. Later in 2014, he was the host of the Discovery Channel show Nomad Chef, where he traveled to 10 countries and learned how to gather ingredients and cook food from communities. In 2015, he hosted the cooking reality television series Restaurant Revolution. In 2016, he co-hosted with chef Qu Jianmin on the show Chef Exchange, where they learned about each other’s food and wine cultures. In October 2019, he became one of the new judges of MasterChef Australia, alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen. In July 2020, he was also a judge on Junior MasterChef Australia. He appeared as a judge on the 15th season of MasterChef Australia, which was scheduled to air on 1 May 2023, but died on the eve of the premiere. Later, the release of the show was postponed to 7 May 2023. Additionally, Network 10 announced a special episode of The Sunday Project to be shown before the show based on Jock’s life.
last shot
In 2021 he wrote a memoir titled Last Shot. In the book he tells about his journey from drug addiction to becoming one of Australia’s most famous chefs. According to him, he became addicted to drugs in Scotland in the 1980s. When he started using drugs, he used cocaine and pills, but he eventually started using heroin to recover from his addiction. When he was 15, he tasted heroin for the first time. Later, when he got addicted to it, he also started using needles. This addiction continued for nine years due to which he was expelled from school and job. In the book, he also mentioned that his drug addiction was his dark secret and his parents and wife did not know about it. Talking about this in an interview he said,
Drugs were everywhere – we were surrounded. A lot of kids got into trouble and I was one of them.
When he moved to Australia in 1999, he gave up this addiction. According to him, he took his last heroin pill in the toilet of Heathrow Airport on New Year’s Eve.
Jock Zonfril’s memoir Last Shot
controversies
physical abuse of an employee
In 2002, Jock deliberately fires Martin Kramer, who worked as an apprentice chef in his kitchen because he was working too slowly. He was fined $75,000 after Martin filed a complaint against him. In May 2007, Martin went to the Federal Magistrates Court to file a petition against Jock for not paying him fines and for bankruptcy.
Orana Foundation vs Media
In September 2020, Jock filed defamation proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Nationwide News. The petition was based on an article written about the Orana Foundation, founded by Jock in 2016 to preserve the historic cooking techniques and ingredients of indigenous Australians. In October 2017, the foundation was awarded The Good Food Guide Food for Good Award. After this achievement, many questions were raised from the media regarding the charity management of his foundation. Action was taken in relation to the articles, after which on 17 December 2020, Nationwide News wrote an apology to Jock in The Australian newspaper.
burdened with debt
On 5 October 2020, his restaurant chain Restaurant Orana and Bistro Blackwood entered voluntary administration after going through unpaid debts of approximately $3.2 million. Subsequently, a preliminary report was filed with ASIC by voluntary administrators to investigate whether his restaurants were trading while he was insolvent or whether improper preferences or a possible breach of director duties had occurred.
last shot controversy
On 28 July 2021, Simon & Schuster published a feature story about Jock’s memoir Last Shot in The Sydney Morning Herald. In the memoir, he talked about his heroin addiction and visits to indigenous communities. In the memoir, he described Marco Pierre White, a famous chef, as his father figure, but in an interview, Marco denied Jock’s help and said, “Almost everything they’ve written about me is a lie. ” In another interview, Simon & Schuster talked about the book and said that it is “a historical account written from the personal knowledge of the subject who wrote it.”
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- 2011: Chef of the Year Award at the South Australian Food Industry Awards
- 2014: South Australian Best New Restaurant and South Australian Restaurant of the Year at The Advertiser Food Awards
- 2015: South Australian Restaurant of the Year at The Advertiser Food Awards
- 2015: Chef of the Year at the Restaurant & Catering Awards
- 2015–2016: Australia’s Hot 50 Restaurants by The Australian
- 2017: Hottest Chef and Hottest South Australian Restaurant by The Australian
- 2017: Food for Good Award by The Good Food Guide
- 2018: Australian Restaurant of the Year by Gourmet Traveler magazine
- 2018: Australia’s Hottest Chef by The Australian
- 2018: Australian Food for Good Award by The Good Food Guide
- 2018: Basque Culinary World Award by the Basque Culinary Center
- 2019: Australia’s Restaurant of the Year by The Good Food Guide
- 2019–2020: Three-Hated Restaurants at the Chef’s Hat Awards
pony
He has a tattoo on his right hand.
Jock Zonfrillo’s tattoo on his arm
Death
He died on 30 April 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. Reportedly the cause of his death is not known. After his death his family talked about him on social media and said,
With a completely broken heart and not knowing how we can move on in life without him, we are very sad to announce that Jock passed away yesterday. For those who crossed his path, became his partner, or were fortunate enough to be part of his family, keep this proud Scot in your heart when you sip your next whiskey. So many words could describe it, so many stories could be told, but right now we are too overwhelmed to put them into words. For those who crossed his path, became his partner, or were fortunate enough to be part of his family, keep this proud Scot in your heart when you sip your next whiskey. We ask that you please allow us to grieve in private as we find a way to get through this and find space on the other side to celebrate our irreplaceable husband, father, brother, son and friend.
Facts/General Knowledge
- He followed a non-vegetarian diet.
Facebook post about Jock Zonfrillo’s eating habits
- After returning to Australia, he began using Australian native ingredients in his cooking. Talking about this in an interview he said,
At the end of the day, what I wanted to do was with good intentions, and I was doing it by consulting with the indigenous people of the country and being asked of them and they were my check-in points, they were my advisors and So I knew I was on a path that I felt was right. I’ve spent almost two decades trying to bring some kind of acceptance around Indigenous culture and its people and its food and interactions through food.
- His restaurant Orana was named Australia’s 2018 Restaurant of the Year by Gourmet Traveler magazine in August 2017.
- In July 2021, she was seen wearing a garland of worries in the MasterChef show. Many of his fans became interested in what he was up to. Later, he sold handmade bracelets with skulls under the brand name Cam for up to $500 each. Talking about this in an interview he said,
Cam is Scottish Gaelic, pronounced Keam. It’s not religious – it’s an invisible circle of protection that you draw around your body with your hand, reminding you to be safe and loved even in the darkest times. I have a lot of anxieties and when I feel anxious or a little stressed, basically I become anxious. So I flick through them… and the more worried I get… the faster I do it.’
- In an interview, he had said that cooking freed him from drug addiction. In the interview he further said,
I’ve always said, ‘If it weren’t for food, I would be dead.’ When you are addicted to drugs, there is nothing more compelling than consuming that drug. Luckily for me, I somehow became incapable of cooking.”
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn