Jock Zonfrillo’s suicide and death news shocked fans and his colleagues when they discovered the truth. Jock Zonfrillo remained as judge of MasterChef Australia since he founded the reality cooking show. The news about his demise and suicide only surfaced on 30 April 2023 when the police discovered his body in Zagame’s house hotel. The news came as a setback to his fans but the major blow came to the MasterChef Australia franchise. He was a celebrity Chef and was loved by his viewers for giving honest opinions and suggestions to the contestants. In this blog, we shall unravel Jock Zonfrillo’s net worth before he died and the heirs to his property. We would also clear some myths regarding the suicide and death of Jock Zonfrillo.
His full name is “Barry Jock Zonfrillo he was born on 4 August 1976 in Glasgow, Scotland. By profession, Jock Zonfrillo was a celebrity chef, tv presenter, and businessman having multiple chains of restaurants all over the globe. His childhood was spent in a middle-class household where his father used to work as a barber and his name was Ivan. His mother Sarah worked as a hairdresser with his father. His father was of Italian descent while her mother was Scottish. He is survived by one older sister and his wife Lauren Fried.
The chef and his wife have an interesting love story. The couple first met on Twitter in October 2014 and later started dating. The couple was blessed with a son in the year 2018 and a daughter in 2020. Jock Zonfrillo has previously been married twice prior to taking vows with Lauren Fried. From his previous marriages, he had two daughters who were living with Jock and Lauren before his demise.
His restaurant business was dwindling which led to the closure of his restaurant chain in Glasgow. In search of better opportunities, Jock and his whole family have moved to Melbourne, Australia. In Australia, they were living in Carlton but later moved to Italy in 2023.
Talking about his professional degree, Jock has attended Belmont Academy at Ayr. After completing his degree he has more than 30 years of experience in Scottish, French, and Italian cuisine.
He began his career as a part-time dishwasher at a restaurant where his sister was working as a waitress. He was only 12 years of age at that time. His introduction to cooking happened by accident. One day one of the chefs was unable to make it to the restaurant as he had met with one so to replace him Jock was made the Chef of the restaurant temporarily. He left school when he was 15 and started working as an apprentice in The Turnberry Hotel kitchen. But alongside all these events, he also started taking drugs, heroin.
Soon after he finished his apprenticeship, he landed a job in one of the famous Michelin-starred restaurants in Chester named Arkle. He has accepted in one of his interviews that he was going through the peak of his addiction and to sustain it, he would often sell drugs to others. His career in Arkle did not last long and he was fired from the restaurant due to some misunderstandings.
Soon Jock traveled to the UK and briefly worked for Pierre White’s chain of restaurants. Later he even worked with other celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Quaglino, and David Cavalier and then went to Melbourne. In Melbourne, Jock was soon promoted to sous-chef. In his initial days in Australia, he was still addicted to heroin but was able to quit once he moved to Sydney. There he worked as a head chef at restaurant 41 where he was uniquely famous for cooking foods consisting of native Australian ingredients.
In 2002 he made headlines when he blazed one of the apprentice chefs for being slow in service. This incident haunted Jock for nearly half a decade as the apprentice chef Martin Krammer dragged him to court for the incident. Jock Zonfrillo also filed for bankruptcy in the year 2007. After all these events, Jock was fired from the restaurant and he moved to Adelaide where he started working as a consultant and salesman for kitchen equipment.
His career rose after he moved to Adelaide. He opened his chain of restaurants “Orana and Street ADL” in collaboration with Bistro Blackwood. He has also received many awards in his career. His Orana restaurant won the Restaurant of the Year award in 2018 and he was named Australia’s hottest Chef for that very year. But after the pandemic in 2020, his all businesses collapsed due to increasing debt and less cash flow.
He was already a celebrity chef from the year 2014, people remember him as a “Nomad Chef” from the “Discovery Channel”. Jock was a traveler and host in the show where he traveled to 10 different nations and explored their cuisine. The very next year he was the host of a cooking show called “Restaurant Revolution” which had a similar theme to MasterChef Australia. Then in 2016, he was also the host of Chef Exchange alongside Chef Qu Jianmin. For the next two years, he worked in the same show.
Though Jock Zonfrillo made guest appearances in the initial seasons of MasterChef Australia, it was only in October 2019, he was offered to be part of MasterChef Australia as a judge in addition to Andy Allen and Melissa Leong. In 2020, Jock was also made a judge of another franchise of MasterChef Australia named “Junior MasterChef Australia” where kids showed their talent in cooking.
It is confirmed that the celebrated Chef is now more in this world. Jock Zonfrillo died in Melbourne on 30 April 2023. It was the Melbourne police who confirmed the tragic news via a press conference. His body was found in mysterious condition at Zagame’s House Hotel in Melbourne. Police are waiting for his autopsy report so that they can have some concrete evidence for his death. His fans all over the world are really concerned about what could be the reason for his demise or dis he committed suicide.
Previously he was an addict and consumed heroin according to various sources which can also be considered as a reason for his death or a heart attack. His financial condition could have also led him to invoke such a step because his businesses were running at a loss and he had filed for bankruptcy once. On the prima face, the police have ruled out any clues that indicate that it was a suicide or a murder. Only a thorough investigation will unearth the truth behind Jock Zonfrillo’s suicide or murder rumors.
When he was alive, Jock Zonfrillo had just begun to make big in life. In his initial days of struggle, he barely managed to keep himself alive but Jock Zonfrillo was able to generate a net worth of 14 Million dollars till the time of his death in April 2023. He had done odd jobs before making cooking a profession. He built up his career by being a chef at Michelin Star restaurants. These chefs are the highest-paid chefs in the industry. He was able to live a lavish life and save some money by opening his restaurant. His Orana and Bistro Blackwood were an instant hit and very soon they had chains across Australia.
His bar called Mallozzi was also a bonus to his income. He was able to generate 10$ million dollars revenue year on year from his chain of restaurants and bars. While his business was doing well, he thought of traveling and making a food documentary named “Nomad Chef” where he explores 10 nations and their cuisine. This was a turning point in his life. After getting recognition, he started getting offers to host, judge, and present various reality shows in Australia.
He appeared in all the seasons of MasterChef Australia, Restaurant Revolution, and Chef Chef Exchange. He was also the co-founder of the MasterChef Australia franchise. His income from the television shows combined contributes to 4$ million dollars of his net worth.
His philanthropy activities include founding “The Orana Foundation” which preserves native Australian ingredients and techniques of the indigenous people of Australia. It is a catalog for nutritional value, taste, and profile of the ingredients. Now about his real estate and other investments, he has one traditional house in Glasgow, one in London, and three luxury houses in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth. His family had recently moved to Rome, Italy but arrived back in Adelaide as soon as they heard the news of his demise. Earlier in his life in the years 2019 and 2020, he had also filed bankruptcy for one of his ventures due to a worldwide pandemic that affected his business. This event caused a decline in Jock Zonfrillo’s Net Worth from 25 $ million dollars to 14$ million dollars from the year 2020 to 2023. Taking account of all his assets and liabilities, Jock Zonfrillo Net Worth in 2023 was 14$ million dollars and now his savings and assets will be distributed equally among his four children once they attain 18 years of age according to Australian laws.
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