1. Barry "Jock" Zonfrillo was a Scottish chef, television presenter and restaurateur.
41 Facts About Jock Zonfrillo
1. 2.
Jock Zonfrillo was the founder of the Orana Foundation and a judge on MasterChef Australia.
3.
Jock Zonfrillo's father, Ivan, was a barber and his mother, Sarah, was a hairdresser.
4.
Jock Zonfrillo started working in kitchens at the age of 12 as a part-time dishwasher at the restaurant in which his older sister was waitressing.
5.
Jock Zonfrillo started learning to cook at the restaurant three weeks later when one of the chefs had a motorbike accident.
6.
Jock Zonfrillo left school at age 15 and started an apprenticeship in the kitchens of The Turnberry Hotel.
7.
Jock Zonfrillo stated that he started taking drugs, including heroin at this time.
8.
In 1993, at the age of 16, Jock Zonfrillo was named Young Scottish Chef of the Year.
9.
Jock Zonfrillo was fired from the restaurant after a foul-mouthed outburst that was overheard in the dining room.
10.
Jock Zonfrillo next travelled to London where he worked for Marco Pierre White at The Restaurant Marco Pierre White.
11.
Jock Zonfrillo worked at Quaglino's and at Chapter One with David Cavalier before heading to Australia in 1994 for 12 months.
12.
When his visa expired, Jock Zonfrillo returned to London and worked for three months at Gordon Ramsay's Aubergine.
13.
Jock Zonfrillo subsequently resumed working for White at the Oak Room and Les Saveurs, before joining Pharmacy.
14.
Jock Zonfrillo was appointed to his first head chef position, at age 22, at The Tresanton Hotel in Cornwall.
15.
Jock Zonfrillo stated that he quit heroin cold turkey upon arrival in Sydney, and remained clean since then.
16.
Jock Zonfrillo became head chef of Restaurant 41 where he began using Australian native ingredients in his cooking.
17.
In 2002, Jock Zonfrillo set fire to the pants of an apprentice chef for working too slowly.
18.
The chef, Martin Krammer, sued Jock Zonfrillo after suffering burns to his hand and was awarded damages in excess of $75,000 in 2007.
19.
In May 2007, Jock Zonfrillo was declared bankrupt after a creditor's petition from Krammer was successful in the Federal Magistrates Court.
20.
Jock Zonfrillo started importing and selling kitchen equipment and doing some consultancy, then briefly worked at the Austral after moving to Adelaide.
21.
In 2011, Jock Zonfrillo was named head chef at Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant in South Australia but left after 18 months.
22.
In 2016 and 2017, Jock Zonfrillo ran a fixed food truck called Nonna Mallozzi, serving Italian food.
23.
Jock Zonfrillo closed it in July 2019 after posting losses exceeding $140,000 in the time it was open.
24.
Jock Zonfrillo had to sell his family home in the Adelaide Hills after the closure of Orana.
25.
In 2016, Jock Zonfrillo started The Orana Foundation, to preserve historical cooking techniques and ingredients of Indigenous Australians.
26.
Jock Zonfrillo launched defamation proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against the newspaper.
27.
In 2014, Jock Zonfrillo hosted the Discovery Channel show Nomad Chef which saw him travel to communities in 10 countries to learn how they gather ingredients and cook.
28.
In 2016, Jock Zonfrillo co-hosted Chef Exchange with chef Qu Jianmin from Adelaide's sister city Qingdao.
29.
In October 2019, Jock Zonfrillo was announced as one of the new judges for MasterChef Australia, alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen.
30.
Jock Zonfrillo had previously appeared as a guest chef on the show across three seasons.
31.
In July 2020, Jock Zonfrillo was announced as one of the judges for Junior MasterChef Australia in 2020.
32.
Jock Zonfrillo was programming director of the Tasting Australia food festival from 2016 to 2019.
33.
In July 2021, Jock Zonfrillo began selling "worry beads" bracelets with skulls on them for up to $500 each, under the brand Caim.
34.
Jock Zonfrillo met his first wife, Kelly, in Sydney in 1996.
35.
On 1 January 2017, Jock Zonfrillo married his third wife, Lauren Fried.
36.
In February 2018, Fried and Jock Zonfrillo had a son who was born two months premature and weighed only 1.2 kg.
37.
Jock Zonfrillo had two other daughters from his two previous marriages.
38.
Jock Zonfrillo died in Melbourne, Australia, on 1 May 2023, at age 46.
39.
Jock Zonfrillo's body was found after police were called to conduct a welfare check at Zagame's House hotel.
40.
The 15th season of MasterChef Australia, which Jock Zonfrillo had already filmed, was scheduled to premiere on 1 May 2023 but was postponed to 7 May It was preceded by a special episode of The Sunday Project reflecting on Jock Zonfrillo's life.
41.
Jock Zonfrillo's funeral was held at the Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium on 13 May 2023 and attended by around 200 people.