Jock Zonfrillo

Barry "Jock" Zonfrillo (4 August 1976 – 1 May 2023) was a Scottish chef, television presenter and restaurateur. He was the founder of the Orana Foundation and a judge on MasterChef Australia.

Early life Zonfrillo was born in Glasgow, Scotland and raised in Ayr. His mother's family is Scottish from Dalmellington, Ayrshire, while his father is from Scauri, Italy. He had an older sister, Carla.

Career Rise to head chef 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. He stated that he started taking drugs, including heroin at this time. While working at Arkle, he claimed that he started selling drugs to fund his heroin addiction.

Zonfrillo next travelled to London where he worked for Marco Pierre White at The Restaurant Marco Pierre White. Zonfrillo was appointed to his first head chef position, at age 22, at The Tresanton Hotel in Cornwall. He became head chef of Restaurant 41 where he began using Australian native ingredients in his cooking. According to Krammer, "He [Zonfrillo] never paid me a cent." replacing Street ADL with Bistro Blackwood in September 2017. In August 2017, Orana was named Australia's 2018 Restaurant of the Year by Gourmet Traveller magazine; the same year Zonfrillo was named Australia's 2018 Hottest Chef in The Australian. In October 2018, Orana was named Australia's 2019 Restaurant of the Year by The Good Food Guide, as well as being a three hatted restaurant in the 2019 and 2020 Chef Hat Awards.

In 2016 and 2017, Zonfrillo ran a fixed food truck called Nonna Mallozzi, serving Italian food. Zonfrillo opened a bar called Mallozzi in December 2018. He closed it in July 2019 after posting losses exceeding $140,000 in the time it was open. In late 2019, Bistro Blackwood closed, followed by Orana in March 2020. with substantial unpaid debts, amounting to approximately $3.2 million. Zonfrillo also had to sell his family home in the Adelaide Hills after the closure of Orana.

The Orana Foundation In 2016, Zonfrillo started The Orana Foundation, to preserve historical cooking techniques and ingredients of Indigenous Australians. The foundation was awarded The Good Food Guide Food for Good Award in October 2017. One of the foundation's projects was a database of 1,443 Aboriginal food plants created in partnership with the University of Adelaide. Launched in September 2020, the database provided information about the plants' nutritional profile, taste, flavour, and optimal methods of preparation and cooking. Zonfrillo launched defamation proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against the newspaper. The Australian 's publisher Nationwide News settled the court case. An apology was printed in The Australian newspaper on 17 December 2020 and published on their website.

Television In 2014, 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.

In October 2019, Zonfrillo was announced as one of the new judges for MasterChef Australia, alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen. He had previously appeared as a guest chef on the show across three seasons.

Other work Zonfrillo was programming director of the Tasting Australia food festival from 2016 to 2019.

In July 2021, Zonfrillo began selling "worry beads" bracelets with skulls on them for up to $500 each, under the brand Caim.

Memoir On 28 July 2021, Simon & Schuster published Zonfrillo's memoir, Last Shot. A subsequent feature in The Sydney Morning Herald questioned his stories, notably his claims of having visited "hundreds of Indigenous communities", as well as stories of his drug use. Marco Pierre White, referred to as a father figure in the book, stated that "almost everything he has written about me is untrue".

Personal life Zonfrillo met his first wife, Kelly, in Sydney in 1996. They separated in 2002.

On 1 January 2017, Zonfrillo married his third wife, Lauren Fried. The couple met on Twitter in October 2014. Fried and Zonfrillo had a daughter in October 2020. Zonfrillo had two other daughters from his two previous marriages.

After the closure of his restaurants, Zonfrillo and his family relocated to Melbourne around March 2020. Prior to his death, the family resided in Carlton

Daily Mail Australia reported that he had been battling bowel cancer since 2021, and that when he was not filming MasterChef, he was receiving treatment for the disease.

Death Zonfrillo died in Melbourne, Australia, on 1 May 2023, at age 46. His body was found after police were called to conduct a welfare check at Zagame's House hotel. There was no immediate confirmation of his cause of death, but the police were not treating the death as suspicious and were preparing a report for the coroner. The 15th season of MasterChef Australia, which 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 Zonfrillo's life. His funeral was held at the Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium on 13 May 2023 and attended by around 200 people.

Recognitions 1993 Young Scottish Chef of the Year – The Federation of Chefs Scotland 2014 South Australian Best New Restaurant and South Australian Restaurant of the Year – The Advertiser Food Awards 2015 South Australian Restaurant of the Year – The Advertiser Food Awards 2015 Chef of The Year – Restaurant & Catering Awards 2015 and 2016 Australia's Hot 50 Restaurants – The Australian 2017 Hottest Chef & Hottest South Australian Restaurant – The Australian 2017 Food for Good Award – The Good Food Guide 2018 Australian Restaurant of the Year – Gourmet Traveller magazine 2018 Australia's Hottest Chef – The Australian 2018 Australian Food for Good Award – The Good Food Guide 2018 Basque Culinary World Prize – Basque Culinary Center 2019 Australian Restaurant of the Year – The Good Food Guide. Nomad Chef

Filmed in 10 countries and aired in 220 countries. 2016–2018 Chef Exchange First and second season for Qingdao TV (QTV) in China and South Australia. 2018 MasterChef Australia

Series 10 2019 MasterChef Australia Series 11

MasterChef Australia

Series 12–15, Series 15 aired posthumously

Junior MasterChef Australia Series 3