As a culinary figure, Jock Zonfrillo reached the highest peaks in Australia, his adopted homeland. He won national and international awards, and went on to become a television star with a coveted judging spot on MasterChef. However the life of the chef and television personality, who died on 30 April at age 46, had great lows, both private and public.
Zonfrillo, whose legal name is Barry, was raised in Ayr, Scotland. His father, Ivan, was a barber, and his paternal grandparents had migrated to Scotland from Italy, while his mother Sarah’s family were farmers in Scotland.
Zonfrillo found his way into kitchens early, starting his career as a dishwasher at just 12. At 15, he traded school books for saucepans permanently, taking up an apprenticeship in the kitchens of golf resort the Turnberry Hotel. There he was awarded Young Scottish Chef of the Year in 1993. His early career was a steady move south, first to Chester, then eventually to London, where he worked under Marco Pierre White – a man considered by many to be the first rock star chef – and who Zonfrillo frequently credited as a life-changing influence.
In his memoir, Last Shot, Zonfrillo wrote that this time was also marred by substance abuse and periods of homelessness.
After visiting Australia for one year in 1996, Zonfrillo made his permanent move in 2000, becoming head chef at Sydney’s Restaurant 41.
In 2011 he was appointed head chef of South Australia’s Penfolds Magill Estate, before parting ways with the restaurant just 18 months later. At the time, restaurant executives cited creative “differences” as the reason behind his departure; Zonfrillo later claimed the restaurant didn’t want to put Australian native ingredients on the menu.
Zonfrillo’s culinary fascination with Australian native ingredients earned him accolades – and criticism. He opened fine-dining restaurant Orana in Adelaide in 2013 with an innovative menu featuring kakadu plums, bunya nuts and native sea succulents, and was awarded restaurant of the year by Gourmet Traveller for 2018, and Good Food Guide in 2019.
Opening underneath Orana in 2013, Street ADL later rebranded to Restaurant Blackwood, which later became Bistro Blackwood.
In 2016, Zonfrillo began a charitable enterprise, the Orana Foundation. Its mission was to highlight the potential of Australian native ingredients. In 2017, the foundation was awarded a $1.25m grant by the South Australian government, and announced a research partnership with the University of Adelaide to build a database of Australian native ingredients.
In 2018 Zonfrillo won the Basque Culinary World prize – a prestigious award, plus €100,000 in prize money – in recognition of chefs who are “transforming society through gastronomy” an acknowledgment of his work with the foundation.
But the foundation would prove controversial, with the database project resulting in legal disputes with the University of Adelaide and the Australian newspaper.
Zonfrillo built his public profile on television shows, as the host of Nomad Chef, which ran on the UK’s Discovery Channel in 2014 and presenter of Restaurant Revolution, a short-lived restaurant reality television show with a judging panel that included chef Neil Perry, restaurant critic John Lethlean and writer Jess Ho, in 2015.
But it was his 2019 casting as a judge on MasterChef that catapulted Zonfrillo from food industry figure to mainstream Australian celebrity. Zonfrillo, as well as writer Melissa Leong and former contestant Andy Allen, comprised the next generation judging panel for the show’s 12th season in 2020, replacing original judges Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris.
Zonfrillo’s frank and roguish judging style and personality earned him respect from contestants and viewers.
But as Zonfrillo’s star rose, his restaurant businesses were not faring so well. Bistro Blackwood closed in 2019, and Restaurant Orana permanently closed in 2020. Both businesses were placed into voluntary administration.
Zonfrillo credited his move to on-screen duties for providing him a better work-life than kitchen life.
“I’ve had nights off, and I’ve had weekends off. And so my mental health is greatly improved, and I’ve been able to enjoy being a father in a different way this time around,” he said in 2022.
In 2021, Zonfrillo published his memoir Last Shot, which chronicled his time in kitchens as he battled addiction and mental health issues. Later that year, the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend magazine published a cover feature alleging that many of the details Zonfrillo described were either false or exaggerated. At the time, Zonfrillo told Guardian Australia: “This is the story of my life. I’ve lived every minute of it, the highs and lows, and I stand by it.”
Good Weekend’s editor Katrina Strickland told Guardian Australia she was confident of her publication’s factchecking processes, and stood by the reporter and the story.
Zonfrillo is survived by his wife, Lauren Zonfrillo, and his four children, Ava, Sophia, Alfie and Isla.
Jock Zonfrillo, chef and television personality, born 4 August 1976, died 30 April 2023