MasterChef Australia host Jock Zonfrillo dies aged 46 as Gordon Ramsay leads tributes to award-winning chef
MASTERCHEF Australia host Jock Zonfrillo has died aged 46.
The award-winning Glasgow-born chef was found dead at a house in Melbourne in the early hours of Monday morning after cops carried out a welfare check.
Police said his death, confirmed by Network 10, is not being treated as suspicious.
His devastated family said their hearts were “shattered”.
“With completely shattered hearts and without knowing how we can possibly move through life without him, we are devastated to share that Jock passed away yesterday,” they said.
“So many words can describe him, so many stories can be told, but at this time we’re 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 Scot in your hearts when you have your next whisky.
“We implore you to please let us grieve privately as we find a way to navigate through this and find space on the other side to celebrate our irreplaceable husband, father, brother, son and friend.”
Survived by his wife Lauren and four children, Zonfrillo worked with world-famous chefs around the world before opening his own in Australia.
He became head chef at Sydney’s Restaurant 41 in 2000 and was named Australia’s Hottest Chef in 2018.
MasterChef Australia’s new season was set to start tonight but the show will not air this week, Network 10 said.
Celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Australian singer Jimmy Barnes led tributes to Zonfrillo.
“Saddened by the devastating news… I truly enjoyed the time we spent together on MasterChef in Australia,” Ramsay said.
Jamie Oliver, who appears in this season of MasterChef Australia, said he was in “total shock”.
“We had the best time working together for this year’s MasterChef, I can’t tell how good it was to work with him,” he said.
“Jock was very generous to me with his time and spirit in the show and for that I was really grateful.
Jock will be so very missed… I can’t believe I’m writing this…
“Sending heartfelt love and condolences to all of his family, friends and his second family the MasterChef team and contestants.”
Barnes said Zonfrillo “was like a brother to me and we made each other laugh and cry”.
TV presenter and cook Jane de Graaf said he was a “champion of beautiful food”.
Network 10 also paid tribute to Zonfrillo’s “grit and determination” and said he will be “greatly missed”.
“Jock was known to Australians as a chef, best-selling author, philanthropist and MasterChef judge but he will be best remembered as a loving father, husband, brother and son,” the network said.
“Determined and talented and with plenty of grit, Jock was born in Glasgow to an Italian father and a Scottish mother, which meant his formative years were heavily influenced by two strong cultures and it was his obsession with food and desire for a new pushbike that at just 12 years old fuelled Jock to knock on kitchen doors looking for a job.
“Jock’s charisma, wicked sense of humour, generosity, passion and love for food and his family cannot be measured.
“He will be greatly missed.”
MasterChef Australia said it was “deeply shocked” at the death of one of its judges.
“Network 10 and Endemol Shine Australia are deeply shocked and saddened at the sudden loss of Jock Zonfrillo, a beloved member of the MasterChef Australia family,” it said.
“Jock passed away in Melbourne yesterday. MasterChef Australia will not air this week.”
Back in 2020, Zonfrillo has told how being given a job by celebrity chef Marco Pierre White had saved his life.
He said he would have been in a “pine box” if he hadn’t been taken on as a 17-year-old trainee at the food legend’s flagship restaurant.
Zonfrillo told how he was at rock bottom after being fired from a kitchen job due to a drug problem.
But he said he was given a chance after knocking on the door of Pierre White’s eatery in London’s Hyde Park Hotel.
Zonfrillo became one of the youngest apprentices at Scotland’s famed The Turnberry Hotel at just 15, and by 17 he was working alongside Pierre White.
He joined MasterChef in 2019, hosting alongside chef Melissa Leong and former contestant Andy Allen.
The Scotsman released a memoir in 2021 about his years as a heroin addict and his career in London before moving to Australia.