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Jock Zonfrillo, an award-winning chef and MasterChef Australia host, has died suddenly, aged 46.
He was found dead at a house in Melbourne when police conducted a welfare check in the early hours of Monday morning. Gordon Ramsay, Australian singer Jimmy Barnes, and fellow chef Colin Fassnidge have led tributes to Zonfrillo, saying he had inspired a nation of home cooks.
Zonfrillo began working in kitchens at 12, and at 15 became one of the youngest-ever apprentices to work at luxury Scottish resort The Turnberry Hotel. He wrote about his struggles with drug addiction in his 2021 memoir, Last Shot.
In 2019, Zonfrillo was announced as part of an all new host line-up for MasterChef Australia, but his career was not without controversy. Orana closed in 2020 with debts of millions of dollars, and Last Shot was criticised as inaccurate by former colleagues, including Marco Pierre White.
