The late MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo will be remembered for his stellar career as an award-winning chef but much of his formative years saw him struggle with drug addiction and homelessness.
The Scottish-born chef was found dead at 2 am on May 1 at a hotel on Melbourne’s Lygon Street after police were called to perform a welfare check.
Trigger Warning: This article will discuss a specific person’s experiences with drug addiction. This may be triggering to readers with similar experiences.
A statement shared by Network Ten the same day confirmed his tragic death.
“Determined and talented and with plenty of grit, Jock was born in Glasgow to an Italian father and a Scottish mother, they shared.
Jock’s “formative years were heavily influenced by two strong cultures and it was his obsession with food” that saw him “knock on kitchen doors looking for a job” at 12 years old.
MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo’s career highlights
At the tender age of 15, Jock became one of the youngest students to take on an apprenticeship at The Turnberry Hotel in the UK.
Two years later he scored a highly coveted position working alongside Michellin-star chef Marco Pierre White at his eponymous Restaurant Marco Pierre White.
“Throughout his career, he worked with world-famous chefs and in restaurants all over the world,” Ten’s statement said.
“His talent saw him shine in the world’s most formidable kitchens and he opened Bistro Blackwood and Restaurant Orana in Adelaide after moving to Australia.
“Jock’s Restaurant Orana was recognised with the coveted distinction of three hats in both 2019 and 2020 and he also received global accolades, accepting the prestigious Basque Culinary World Prize in 2018.
“In 2019, Jock was named as a judge on MasterChef Australia in which he took great pride in challenging and coaching the contestants and of course inspiring a nation of home cooks.”
MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo’s controversial early years, crippling drug addiction and homelessness
However much of his earlier life was plagued with struggles.
Jock even admitted he’d be “in a pine box” if it wasn’t for the generosity of people like Marco Pierre.
In his 2021 memoir, Last Shot, he confessed he was a heroin addict by the time he was 15 and was homeless when he started working for Marco Pierre at the Hyde Park Hotel in London in 1994.
Jock described Marco Pierre as a “father figure” who “saved my life”.
“[Marco Pierre] didn’t fire me. Instead, he picked up the phone, put in a call to the hostel and asked them to fast-track me on the waiting list and find a bed for me,” Jock wrote.
“In the meantime, he put me in touch with a couple of boys from Canteen, the other restaurant he owned, and arranged for me to sleep on their sofa until I could get my sh*t together. He even advanced me some cash to tide me over.”
Jock continued using drugs until he landed a job as head chef at Restaurant 41 in Sydney.
He used heroin for the last time before boarding the plane and getting a fresh start.
“I thought, ‘I’m emigrating to Australia’,” Jock told news.com.au in 2020. “‘I will land in Australia in the year 2000 and it will be a clean sheet,’ and that was it.”
MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo moves to Australia
Despite Jock’s best intentions, his new life in Australia was still filled with challenges.
Two years after becoming head chef at Restaurant 41, he was let go after he set fire to an 18-year-old Martin Krammer.
Jock took “full responsibly” for the accident and said it was a practical joke gone horribly wrong.
He had put a flammable gel used for keeping plates warm on an apprentice’s lap and set fire to his pants.
When he ripped off the pants, Martin suffered extensive burns to his hand and was unable to work for three-and-a-half months.
Martin sued Jock and won $75,000 in damages in 2007.
The same year, Jock declared bankruptcy.
The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic provided another blow for Jock.
The chef closed the doors to his award-winning Adelaide Restaurant Orana for the last time
“Like all of my hospo mates around the world, Covid closed our doors,” he wrote on Instagram at the time.
“We had no idea how long this thing would last for, none of us thought it would mean the end.”
Jock Zonfrillo’s drug addiction exposed
It wasn’t until 2014, a year after Jock established Restaurant Orana, that his heroin addiction was exposed to the world.
A journalist gave Jock the heads up that a story detailing his drug-addled past was going to run.
“I had to respect somebody who was good at their job, even if that meant blowing my life into little pieces,” Jock said in his memoir.
Jock Zonfrillo uses worry beads to help deal with anxiety
Jock also suffered from anxiety, which he attributed to his years of drug addiction amongst other experiences throughout his life.
“I think I’ve worked my way up to it, to be honest. I’ve had so many things wrong with me over the years,’ he explained,” he told Mamma Mia’s No Filter podcast.
“I’ve sat on a lot of sofas and talked about it to a lot of people that know about it a lot more than I do. But I think anxiety is something that really came in the last decade.”
In 2021 he open up about his struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety after fans noticed him holding onto what he called “worry beads” on the set of MasterChef.
“My brain would just start racing, like I’m thinking irrationally, so by using the worry beads, it calms that noise in my brain,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“I’ve got a set of worry beads on me all the time, so if they’re not in my hand, they’re in my pocket. I’ve made so many types, they’re kind of weirdly an accessory.”
Jcok Zonfrillo’s family life
Jock often spoke about the importance of family and friends to bring balance to a busy lifestyle.
During what is believed to be his final interview, he said he yearned to live a simple life.
“I’d love to live a super, super simple life,” he told Daily Telegraph.
“A small house in the middle of nowhere with kids, pets. Just a really simple, uncomplicated life away from everyone.
“But still part of a community in that remoteness I guess. But not the flashy extravagant lifestyle you’d expect from a TV person.”
Jock and his wife Lauren Fried met on Twitter in 2014 and married in 2017.
They share two young children, a five-year-old son Alfie and a two-year-old daughter Isla. Jock also has two older daughters, Ava and Sophia, from previous marriages.
If you are in need of resources to help yourself or someone you know with issues relating to alcohol use, please call the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800-250-015 for free and confidential advice.
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