MasterChef Australia judge Jock Zonfrillo died in Melbourne on Sunday, the day before the season premiered. He was 46.
This was announced by the Australian broadcaster Channel 10 The “sudden loss‘ and said the episode, which will also star chef Jamie Oliver, will be postponed.
No cause of death was given.
“With absolutely broken hearts and not knowing how we could possibly go through life without him, we are devastated to announce that Jock passed away yesterday,” his family said in a statement. per deadline.
“So many words can describe him, so many stories can be told, but at the moment we are too overwhelmed for words. For those who crossed his path, became his mate or were lucky enough to be in his family, keep that proud Scotsman in your heart the next time you sip a whiskey.”
Sam Tabone via Getty Images
Zonfrillo, a brilliant kid chef turned restaurateur and had problems with heroin addiction joined the MasterChef franchise as a judge while growing up in Scotland in 2019.
Oliver, who is set to star with Zonfrillo in the upcoming season, wrote on Facebook that he was “in shock”. “We had the best time working together,” Oliver wrote.
Gordon Ramsay, who previously worked with Zonfrillo, called the Scot’s death “destructive.”
Zonfrillo was named the hottest cook in Australia in 2018 by The Australian, five years after the opening of the prominent Orana restaurant in Adelaide, wrote Deadline. The restaurant closed in early 2020.
“Covid has closed our doors” he said. Another of his Adelaide stores, Bistro Blackwood, closed in 2019.
Infamy followed Zonfrillo in the early stages of his career. In 2002, he set fire to the trousers of an apprentice cook, burning the man’s hands and costing him months of work. The mirror reported. Zonfrillo, who said it was a practical joke gone awry, was ordered to pay the victim $50,000.
Zonfrillo is survived by wife Lauren Fried and four children.
