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 death) in Glasgow, Scotland. His zodiac sign was Leo. He was Scottish on his mother’s side as they hail from Dalmellington, Ayrshire, while his father’s family is from Scauri, Italy. He was educated at Belmont Academy, Ayr, Scotland and left school at the age of 15. At the age of 13, he worked part-time as a dishwasher in a kitchen after school.
Jock Zonfrillo started 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.
Father of Jock Zonfrillo
His mother’s name is Sarah, 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 got married on January 1, 2017.
Jock Zonfrillo’s wedding photo
He was married twice before marrying Lauren. Lauren and Jock have two children, a son, Alfie, and a daughter, Isla. Their son was born in February 2018 and was two months premature, weighing just 1.2kg at birth.
Jock Zonfrillo with his wife, son Alfie and daughter Isla
He has two daughters from his other two marriages, Ava and Sofia.
Jock Zonfrillo’s daughters are Ava and Sofia
Relationships/affairs
He dated Lauren Freed from 2014 to 2017.
Career
Apprenticeship
At the age of 15, after leaving school, he began an apprenticeship in the kitchens of The Turnberry Hotel in Scotland. Later, he joined the Arkle restaurant in Chester. He also worked with British chef Marco Pierre White.
Jock Zonfrillo before moving to Australia
chef
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 a year in Australia and was appointed head chef at The Tresanton Hotel in Cornwall.
Restaurateur
In November 2013, he opened Orana and Street ADL in Adelaide, and in September 2017 he launched Street ADL, which replaced Bistro Blackwood. In December 2018, she opened the restaurant Nonna Mallozzi in Adelaide, South Australia. In July 2019, he faced a $140,000 loss, forcing him to close his Nonna Mallozzi restaurant. Later in 2019, he closed his restaurant Bistro Blackwood and in March 2020 he closed his restaurant Orana. Due to the closure of these restaurants, he had a huge debt of about $3.2 million, his manager Greta Volstadt resigned and he left for 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 collect and cook ingredients from the community. In 2015, he hosted the culinary reality television series Restaurant Revolution. In 2016, he was on Chef Exchange with Chef Ku Jianmin, where they learned about each other’s food and wine culture. In October 2019, he became one of the new judges on 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 due to air on 1 May 2023, but he died the day before the premiere. The show was later pushed back to May 7, 2023. Also, Network 10 announced a special episode of The Sunday Project to be shown before the show, based on the life of Jock.
Last shot
In 2021, he wrote a memoir called The Last Shot. In the book, he talked about his journey from drug addict to one of Australia’s most famous chefs. According to him, he became a drug addict in Scotland in the 1980s. When he started using drugs, he took cocaine and pills, but to get high, he eventually turned to heroin. When he was 15, he tried heroin for the first time. Later, when he became addicted to it, he also started using the needle. This addiction lasted for nine years, which caused him to be expelled from school and work. In the book, he also mentioned that drug addiction was his dark secret and his parents and wife did not know about it. In an interview, he talked about it and said:
Drugs were everywhere – we were surrounded. It was difficult for many children, and I was one of them.”
He quit drugs in 1999 when he moved to Australia. He said he took his last shot of heroin in a toilet at Heathrow Airport on New Year’s Eve.
Memoirs of Jock Zonfrill The Last Shot
confrontations
Physical abuse of an employee
In 2002, Jock deliberately set fire to Martin Kramer, who was working as an apprentice cook in his kitchen, because he was working too slowly. After Martin filed a complaint against him, he was fined $75,000. In May 2007, Martin went to Federal Magistrates Court to file a bankruptcy petition against Jock.
Orana Foundation v. Media
In September 2020, Jock filed a defamation case in the Federal Court of Australia against Nationwide News. The petition was based on an article written about the Orana Foundation, which Jock founded 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, there were many questions from the media about the philanthropic management of his foundation. There were procedures regarding the articles, after which Nationwide News issued an apology to Jock in an Australian newspaper on 17 December 2020.
Sit in debt
On 5 October 2020, his restaurants Restaurant Orana and Bistro Blackwood went into voluntary administration after going through unpaid debts of around $3.2 million. Voluntary administrators then lodged a preliminary report with ASIC to examine whether his restaurants were trading during the insolvency, unfair preferences or potential breaches of director duties.
The last shot of the confrontation
On July 28, 2021, Simon and Schuster published a feature story in The Sydney Morning Herald about the final shot of Jock’s memoir. In his memoirs, he talked about heroin addiction and visits to local communities. In his memoirs, he also referred to celebrity chef Marco Pierre White as a father figure, but in an interview Marco refused to help Jock, saying: “Almost everything he wrote about me is not true.” In another interview, Simon and Schuster spoke about the book, saying it was “a historical account written from the personal knowledge of its subject.”
Awards, honors, achievements
- 2011: Chef of the Year Award at the South Australian Food Industry Awards
- 2014: South Australia’s 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 and Food Awards
- 2015-2016: Australia’s Hot 50 Restaurants by The Australian
- 2017: The Australian’s Hottest Chef and South Australia’s Hottest Restaurant
- 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 Awards by The Good Food Guide
- 2018: Basque Culinary World Prize by the Basque Culinary Center
- 2019: Australian Restaurant of the Year by The Good Food Guide
- 2019-2020: Three Hat Restaurant at the Chef Hat Awards
Tatoo
He has a tattoo on his right arm.
Jock Zonfrillo tattoo on arm
death
He died on 30 April 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. According to reports, the cause of his death is unknown. After his death, his family took to social media to talk about him, saying:
Completely heartbroken and not knowing how we can live without him, we are devastated to share that Jock passed away yesterday. For those who crossed his path, became his mate or were lucky enough to be his family, keep this proud Scotsman in your hearts when you have your next whisky. So many words can describe it, so many stories can be told, but at this point we are 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 Scotsman in your hearts when you have your next whisky. We are begging you to please hold us personally as we find a way to get through this and find a place on the other side to celebrate our irreplaceable husband, father, brother, son and friend.”
Facts/Trivia
- He followed a non-vegetarian diet.
Jock Zonfrillo’s Facebook post about his eating habits
- After returning to Australia, he started using Australian ingredients in his cooking. In an interview, he talked about it and said:
At the end of the day, what I wanted to do was with good intentions, and I was doing it in consultation with the local people of the country, and they were asking me, and they were my checkpoints, they were my advisors, and so I knew that I was going down a path that I felt good about. I’ve spent almost two decades trying to get some sort of recognition for the conversation around Indigenous culture and its people, its food and its food.”
- His restaurant Orana was named Australia’s Best Restaurant 2018 by Gourmet Traveler magazine in August 2017.
- In July 2021, she was seen on the show Masterchef wearing beaded beads. Many of her fans were interested in what she was wearing. He later sold handmade skull bracelets for $500 each under the Caim brand. In an interview, he talked about it and said:
Caim is Scottish Gaelic, pronounced kyem. It’s not religious – it’s an invisible circle of protection that you hand draw around your body to remind you to be safe and loved, even in the darkest of times. I have many different kinds of worry beads, and when I feel anxious or a little stressed, I mostly worry. So I look at them… and the more nervous I get… the faster I do it.”
- In an interview, he said that cooking saved him from drug addiction. In the interview, he added,
I always said, “If it wasn’t for food, I would die.” When you’re addicted, there’s very little more compelling than taking that drug. Fortunately for me, I somehow managed to avoid cooking.”
Categories: Television
Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
