Late GraspChef decide Jock Zonfrillo arrived on Australian shores in 2000 and instantly set about profiting from his clear slate.
Back within the UK, as he later revealed in interviews, he had battled with a crippling dependancy to heroin which had taken maintain of his life by the point he was 15.
At 17 he was working at a one Michelin star restaurant in Chester, in England’s north-west, whereas persevering with to abuse heroin — and was sacked after a foul-mouthed outburst.
Refusing to surrender, he fronted as much as celebrated chef Marco Pierre White’s restaurant and requested for a job, which regardless of a horrific reference, he was given.
Zonfrillo’s dependancy nonetheless continued and, earlier than being came upon by a co-worker, he was sleeping within the restaurant’s change rooms between working 18-hour days.
With the assistance of White, who in his autobiography Last Shot he known as a “father figure” who “saved my life”, he discovered appropriate lodging.
Zonfrillo continued to make use of medicine throughout his time below White, and the well-known chef was nicely conscious of what he was as much as.
“Back in those days, if you had any kind of drug addition or anything like that, you were cast off,” Zonfrillo informed news.com.au in 2020.
“Marco was aware of my situation and the battles that I had personally, but he had the ability to put that to the side and take you at face value as a chef and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”
Zonfrillo continued utilizing medicine till he landed a job as head chef at Restaurant 41 in Sydney, he stated.
“New Year’s Eve when I flew to Australia, it was a clean start for me,” he stated, getting emotional.
“I thought, ‘I’m emigrating to Australia. I will land in Australia in the year 2000 and it will be a clean sheet,’ and that was it.”
After a nine-year wrestle, Zonfrillo stopped utilizing.
“I’m not proud of it at all,” he stated about his drug use. “It’s embarrassing and it’s embarrassing for my parents. But I’m thankful to have been able to come through the other side of that and I’m thankful for all the people who helped me at the right moments.”
He was notably grateful to White, with Zonfrillo saying that if it weren’t for him, he’d be “in a pine box or behind bars”.
Zonfrillo went on to open Restaurant Orana in Adelaide and was named Australia’s Hottest Chef by The Australian in 2018. That 12 months he additionally gained the distinguished Basque Culinary World Prize.
Already a star on the earth of hospitality, Zonfrillo turned considered one of Australia’s favorite TV personalities with viewers swooning over him in GraspChef.
He joined the Channel 10 program in 2019 for the 2020 season alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen, however died the day earlier than the scheduled return for its 2023 season.
The sequence has been pulled from broadcast for this week.
Zonfrillo has additionally spoken candidly in 2021 about his wrestle with obsessive-compulsive dysfunction, anxiousness and dependancy.
“I never thought I would have anxiety, let alone admit to it. It’s a real working class problem to arrive somewhere and think that you’re not good enough.
“For me, I’ve done that my entire life. Every job I’ve got, I’ve felt like I wasn’t good enough to be there.”
He revealed carrying a set of fear beads with him always had helped him cope.
“When I’m nervous or anxious, 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 stated.
“On MasterChef, I’ve got different colours for different suits that I wear. So it’s not a flashing beacon that says ‘I have a problem’ or ‘I have anxiety’.”
Family shattered by loss
At the news of his dying Zonfrillo’s household stated: “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.
“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.”
Zonfrillo moved to Australia together with his first spouse in 2020. The pair divorced in 2007.
In a 2014 interview reflecting on his time in hospitality, he credited the gruelling life-style that got here together with his profession and being a workaholic for destroying his first two marriages.
“Two divorces, a handful of friends because you don’t have the time to spend with them, so therefore you can count your close friends on one hand, and a deep mistrust of most people,” he stated.
“That’s what you’re left with at the end of the day. Is it really that glamorous after all? I don’t think so.”
He married his third spouse Lauren Fried in 2017 and had two youngsters, Alfie and Isla collectively. Zonfrillo additionally has two daughters, Ava and Sophia, from his first two marriages.
He died in Melbourne yesterday. A press release from Victoria Police stated officers attended a Lygon Street handle for a welfare verify, the place they discovered a deceased man at roughly 2am. The police stated the dying was not being handled as suspicious.
No reason behind dying has been launched.
Source: www.news.com.au
