JOCK: ‘I STAND BY MY STORY’
THE MASTERCHEF JUDGE HAS RELEASED HIS NEW MEMOIR, BUT THE BOOK HAS COME OUT WITH A SIDE SERVE OF DRAMA
The past few years have found chef Jock Zonfrillo on a professional and personal high. In addition to reinvigorating MasterChef Australia as one of the three new judges who arrived on the show in 2020, his family life with third wife Lauren Fried and their two young children (in addition to his two older daughters from previous relationships) is, as he told WHO, where he now finds “happiness and solace”.
So when Zonfrillo, 45, was approached last year to have his biography published, he says he finally felt ready to revisit his tumultuous past. “I’ve been asked to write my story so many times and I’ve always said no because I’m ashamed of a lot of the stuff I did,” he says. “I carry the guilt of those things with me still, but then, when I thought about it, now did feel like the right time to tell my story. I was on MasterChef, my fourth child Isla had just been born and my older daughters [Sophia and Ava] knew about my battle with addiction. I feel like my story is a redemption story. If I can show anyone that there is a light at the end of the tunnel of addiction, then it was important to put that out there and to be as transparent and honest as I can be.”
Zonfrillo’s book Last Shot is out now. In it, he writes of growing up in a loving Scottish/Italian family, then going off the rails in his early teens and developing a full-blown heroin addiction (while building his career in food) that lasted until his early 20s when he relocated to Australia. “The first part of the book especially was very tough for me to write,” he says. “I was in tears revisiting some of it, because it’s so raw, real and gritty.”
However, some aspects of Zonfrillo’s story were questioned in a recent Good Weekend magazine profile article. It queried details of Zonfrillo’s working relationship with superstar British chef Marco Pierre White, and how he was hired to work at Sydney restaurant Forty One, as well as the severity of his drug addiction. But Zonfrillo, in a statement to WHO, remains staunch. “This is the story of my life,” he says. “I’ve lived every minute of it, the highs and lows and I stand by it.” He adds, “There’s no question that some of my book makes me look pretty unsavoury. I carry shame from those years, not pride, and it was a big obstacle for me to overcome when writing this book.”
His publisher Simon & Schuster is also backing him. “S & S stands by Jock Zonfrillo’s book Last Shot as the personal recollections of one of Australia’s pre-eminent chefs,” the company’s statement reads. “We take issue with a number of statements mentioned in the [Good Weekend] article.”
One of the publisher’s particular areas of dispute is that White referred to helping Zonfrillo find accommodation in the 25th anniversary edition of his own memoir, White Heat, published in 2015. “Last Shot is a memoir, which by its very definition is a historical account written from the personal knowledge of the subject writing it,” Simon & Schuster explained.
The drama has undoubtedly given Zonfrillo’s book a perhaps unwanted publicity boost, but when speaking to WHO prior to publication, Zonfrillo said he was “proud” of the work despite it being “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done”. He added, “I know I’ve burned through all my nine lives. If I hadn’t found food, I’d either be in a pine box or jail. I’m glad I’m here to tell my story.”
By Melissa Field
“This is the story of my life. I’ve lived every minute of it” ZONFRILLO