Jock Zonfrillo: Twist in the death of MasterChef star almost a year after his body was found in a hotel room

Jock Zonfrillo’s sudden death is still being investigated almost a year after his body was found in a hotel room.

The MasterChef star, 46, was found dead at Zagame’s House hotel in Carlton, near Melbourne’s CBD, at about 2am on April 30 last year.

At the time, his wife Lauren was in Italy with their two young children and had phoned Victoria Police to request a welfare check because he stopped answering her calls.

Sources close to the family maintained that Zonfrillo, a former heroin addict, died of natural causes. There was no drug paraphernalia found in the hotel room.

However, in a curious twist, Daily Mail Australia can now reveal the coroner is still looking into his death almost 10 months after the tragedy. 

Jock Zonfrillo is pictured with his wife, Lauren, and his two youngest children

‘The death of Jock Zonfrillo remains under investigation by the coroner,’ a spokesperson for the Coroner’s Court of Victoria said.

‘This is an active investigation.’

Zonfrillo, who had recently moved to Rome with his family just before his death, left his wife and two young children Alfie and Isla in Italy to return for the launch of MasterChef’s 15th season.

He checked into the hotel hours before the tragedy and was facing a big week of media commitments, but died the day before the show went to air.

The chef was laid to rest in a private funeral in Sydney surrounded by 200 family and friends. Pallbearers included his wife Lauren and MasterChef co-host Andy Allen.

Zonfrillo opened up about his battle with heroin addiction, his rise to the top of the culinary world, and about his relationship struggles in his 2021 memoir, Last Shot.

In the book, he spoke candidly about how he began working for celebrated British chef Marco Pierre White at 17, when he was homeless and addicted to heroin.

Jock Zonfrillo died at Zagame’s House hotel in Carlton, in the inner suburbs of Melbourne

When his boss realised he was sleeping in the restaurant, he found him accommodation and lent him cash.

Zonfrillo moved to Australia aged 20 in 1996 and gained work at Forty One in Sydney’s central business district. He was using cocaine, pills, LSD and cannabis, but kept a raging heroin addiction hidden from everyone.

He went back to the UK when his visa ran out in 1997. 

Two years later, he took his last syringe of heroin in the toilets at Heathrow airport before returning Down Under, and used the experience as inspiration for his book title.

He quit cold turkey and maintained that his love of food and cooking saved his life.

Do you know more? Charlotte.Karp@mailonline.com