Jock Zonfrillo dies: MasterChef Australia co-hosts ‘cancel media interviews’

The hosts and judges of MasterChef Australia have pulled out of their scheduled media interviews after the sudden death of Jock Zonfrillo at the age of 46.

Andy Allen and Melissa Leong were locked in for several TV and radio appearances this week to promote the cooking show’s fifteenth season, which was due to premiere on Channel Ten on Monday but has since been postponed out of respect for Zonfrillo’s family.

The publicity blitz had already begun on Monday morning in the hours before the network and production company Endemol Shine had learned of Zonfrillo’s death.

Australia’s most popular radio show Kyle and Jackie O acknowledged on Tuesday that Allen had been scheduled for an interview that was no longer going ahead.

Host Kyle Sandilands also said he believed the new season of MasterChef would never see the light of day, despite reports it was only being delayed for a week. 

‘We were supposed to have Andy Allen from MasterChef on,’ he said.

‘But after that news of Jock’s death, they’ve cancelled the whole show. It won’t even be airing. MasterChef is going to not be aired, is that right?’

When his co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson clarified Ten was just ‘delaying it for a week’, Sandilands said he’d heard the network was ‘just not running it out of respect’.

‘They can’t run the show with the guy who’s dead on it. I just don’t think that’s right,’ he added.

‘Would I want my my family to have to watch [Australian] Idol if I’d died, because I’d already filmed it? I think no.’

Leong, 41, and Allen, 35, are said to be ‘devastated’ and ‘broken’ by Zonfrillo’s death.

Andy Allen (left) and Melissa Leong (centre) were locked in for several TV and radio appearances this week to promote the cooking show’s fifteenth season, which was due to premiere on Channel Ten on Monday but has since been postponed out of respect for Zonfrillo’s family

Channel Ten’s entertainment reporter Angela Bishop appeared on The Project on Monday – where Zonfrillo was scheduled to appear before his death – and said she had heard his co-stars were struggling to come to terms with the news.

‘It is a loss of the member of the family here at Ten… [He was] only 46. That is why this is such a shocking piece of news,’ Bishop said.

‘As you say, they would work 16-hour days together for MasterChef. You couldn’t find closer work mates and confidantes.

‘They are devastated. “Broken” is the word descried to me. They are trying to process this news.’

Zonfrillo’s other colleagues on MasterChef did not seem to know he had died until shortly before the news broke on Monday afternoon, as the publicity machine for the new season was in motion as late as 11.30am, when Leong posted a countdown clock for the premiere on her Instagram account.

Leong also did an interview with Hit WA Breakfast at about 8am on Monday in which she spoke of the pair’s close friendship.

Zonfrillo’s death comes as MasterChef’s fifteenth season, featuring Jamie Oliver as a guest judge, was due to premiere on Ten on Monday night. The show will not be airing this week in light of his passing.

Police found Zonfrillo’s body at about 2am on Monday after they were called to a hotel on Lygon Street in Carlton, Melbourne, for a welfare check.

No cause of death has been disclosed, but police say his death is not being treated as suspicious. A report will be prepared for the coroner.

Zonfrillo is survived by his third wife, Lauren Fried, and his four children: teenage daughters Ava and Sophia, from his first two marriages, and six-year-old Alfie and two-year-old Isla, with Fried.

The Scottish-Australian chef became a host of the popular Channel 10 cooking show in 2019 alongside Allen and Leong. The trio replaced original judges Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan after they quit the show amid a pay dispute.

‘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,’ his family said in a statement on Monday.

‘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.’

British chef Jamie Oliver, who is starring as a guest judge on MasterChef this year and recently wrapped filming with Zonfrillo, said he was in ‘total shock’ over the death of his friend. 

‘I’m in total shock to wake up to the sudden death of chef Jock Zonfrillo. 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 wrote on Instagram.

‘Jock was very generous to me with his time and spirit in the show and for that I was really grateful.

‘Melissa, Andy and Jock work as the most inspiring judges and mentors and each have their very own unique view and style. 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.’

Other tributes from the celebrity and culinary worlds flooded in on Monday afternoon.

Fellow expatriate chef and TV personality Colin Fassnidge told Daily Mail Australia: ‘It’s so shocking. I’m sitting on a rock right now trying to take it in, I don’t know what to say. I’m floored.

‘I’ve had to call my wife straight away when I heard.’

Fellow expatriate chef and TV personality Colin Fassnidge (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia: ‘It’s so shocking. I’m sitting on a rock right now trying to take it in, I don’t know what to say. I’m floored’

Fassnidge, who had been friends with Zonfrillo for 20 years and last saw him two weeks ago at the Taste of Adelaide food festival, said there was no indication anything was going wrong for him, and the news was a complete surprise.

‘He was flying, he was doing a great job, he had a great show, he was on top of the world. Jock was normal, he was healthy and he was living a good life,’ he said.

‘I just feel so sorry for his other half.’

Fassnidge revealed Zonfrillo’s passing had rocked the hospitality industry.

‘We all battle each other in the ratings, but we’re all one big family in hospitality,’ he said.

‘At a certain level, all the chefs know each other.

‘Everyone is ringing. Everyone knows the entire community is in shock.

‘He’s another version of me. He likes a joke. He liked the whisky in the old days. He’s just a great TV host and a great cook.

‘I don’t know what I think yet. We were rivals, and we were friends.’

British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay said on Twitter he was devastated by the news.

‘I truly enjoyed the time we spent together on MasterChef in Australia,’ he tweeted. ‘Sending all my love to Lauren and the family in this difficult time.’

Zonfrillo, who started his career working under Michelin-starred chef Marco Pierre White in the UK, famously overcame an addiction to heroin during his teenage years in Glasgow before becoming one of Australia’s most celebrated chefs.

He once said he owed his life to food, telling an interviewer: ‘It saved my life. A lot of my friends from my early days are dead now or in jail.

‘The thing about being a junkie is that the only way you can get out is if there’s something in your life more compelling than drugs. And for me, I had another addiction: to food and to cooking. That’s what moved me on. That’s how I survived.’

After getting clean and establishing himself in Britain, Zonfrillo migrated to Australia and became the head chef at Sydney’s Restaurant 41 in the year 2000.

He opened the award-winning Restaurant Orana in Adelaide in 2013.

In 2018, the year before he joined MasterChef, he was named Australia’s Hottest Chef by The Australian newspaper.

That year, Orana was also named Australia’s best restaurant by the Good Food Guide.

Restaurant Orana closed its doors in 2020 when it went into voluntary administration with debts totalling $3.2million.