MasterChef Australia judge Jock Zonfrillo who tragically died over the weekend had spoken openly about his battle with addiction.
The Glasgow-born chef penned a memoir back in 2021 where he opened up about his childhood in the west of Scotland and his struggles with heroin.
Prior to his death at 46, Jock was a renowned chef as well as a judge on the cooking competition. His restaurant, Orana in South Australia, was also highly popular before it closed down in 2020, reports The Mirror.
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Before finding success, Jock grew up in Ayrshire and began struggling with addiction when he was just 14 years old.
He once said being a teenager in Scotland in the 1980s was the reason behind him becoming an addict. It started off with cocaine and pills before he searched for a different high, and eventually started using heroin.
"Drugs were everywhere — we were surrounded. A lot of kids got into trouble and I was one of them," he said.
Jock explained that if he wasn't shooting up "at least twice a day", he would immediately get sick with the symptoms of withdrawal.
He was fired from his job at Michelin Star restaurant in The Turnberry Hotel in South Ayrshire when he was a teenager and he made the decision to travel to London and found himself at Marco Pierre White's restaurant.
Thankfully, Marco gave him a job at his world-famous Hyde Park Hotel and his life turned around. When he travelled to London in search of a job with Marco Pierre White, he had no place to go.
After Marco hired him, he secretly slept in the changing rooms of the restaurant before he was caught out. The TV chef was terrified he would get fired but, instead, Marco went out of his way to help him.
"He didn't fire me. Instead, he picked up the phone, put in a call to the hostel, and asked them to fast-track me on the waiting list and find a bed for me," Jock recalled.
"In the meantime, he put me in touch with a couple of boys from Canteen, the other restaurant he owned, and arranged for me to sleep on their sofa until I could get my s*** together. He even advanced me some cash to tide me over."
"I've always said, 'If it wasn't for food, I would've died.' When you're an addict, there's very little that's more compelling than doing that drug. Luckily for me, I somehow fluked upon cooking," Jock once said.
He moved to Australia in January 2000 in hopes of a fresh start and injected his last hit of heroin before getting on the airplane.
It wasn't until 2014 that his heroin addiction was exposed to the world.
A journalist called him to reveal he was about run an exclusive story about it and Jock said he "couldn't blame him."
"I had to respect somebody who was good at their job, even if that meant blowing my life into little pieces," Jock explained.
He worked at Sydney restaurant Forty One before finally opening up Restaurant Orana in Adelaide in 2013. The first year of opening the restaurant was a disaster for the chef as the business lost $700,000.
After several years of determination, his restaurant was bringing in money and in 2017, 2018, and 2019 it was named Restaurant of the Year.
He was named Australia's Hottest Chef by The Australian in 2018 and later won the Basque Culinary World Prize.
By 2019, he joined the judging panel on Australian MasterChef.
Jock's death has rocked the industry with Jamie Oliver among those saying tribute to the chef.
Jamie Oliver shared a photo with Jock and the other MasterChef Australia judges just hours before the 46-year-old’s death.
Promoting his upcoming appearance on the Australian version of the cooking competition staple, Oliver had posted a selfie with Zonfrillo on Instagram right before his death was announced.
The Naked Chef star has since deleted the post and replaced it with another paying tribute to Zonfrillo.
Sharing a different selfie with the chef, Oliver wrote: “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 years master chef [sic], I can’t tell how good it was to work with him!
“Jock was very generous to me with his time and spirit in the show and for that I was really grateful…Mellisa, Andy & Jock work as the most inspiring judges and mentors and each have there very own unique view and style…”
He continued: “Jock will be so very missed…I can’t believe I’m writing this…….Sending heart felt love and condolences to all of his family, friends and his second family the master chef team and contestants xxx. Love jamie.”
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