Chef Jock Zonfrillo has announced he is closing the doors to Restaurant Orana in Adelaide
Following months of rumours, Adelaide chef Jock Zonfrillo has announced he is closing Restaurant Orana. He, too, blames COVID-19.
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In another big loss to South Australia’s restaurant dining landscape, chef Jock Zonfrillo is indefinitely closing the doors to his Restaurant Orana.
Zonfrillo made the announcement on social media, one day after d’Arenberg Cube Restaurant announced it would hold its final service on April 2, blaming the COVID-19 pandemic for an unrecoverable loss in trade.
Zonfrillo, too, noted the virus, stating, “filling our restaurants will only assist in spreading it further”.
However, rumours Zonfrillo would pull up stumps from Adelaide had been swirling for months.
The award-winning, Scottish-born chef cut ties with the Tasting Australia festival in September, and in October was announced as one of the three new judges for MasterChef Australia.
At that time, Zonfrillo said nothing would change for his restaurants Orana and the ground-floor Blackwood.
“You’ll see me probably just as often,” he told The Advertiser, adding that he would not be moving interstate. “It’s a 50-minute flight from Melbourne and the restaurant is only a 15-minute drive from the airport so I can be standing in Orana very quickly.”
In December, Zonfrillo confirmed he would close Blackwood, transforming the space into a “food lab”.
When asked if Zonfrillo was looking to close Orana at the end of the Adelaide Fringe,
representatives for the chef told The Advertiser, “there is absolutely no truth to the rumour”, a sentiment that was echoed just yesterday: “It’s business as usual.”
Instead, tonight, March 21, the restaurant will hold its last service.
“For us, I’m afraid, like many … it’s closing time,” Zonfrillo wrote on Orana’s Facebook page. “We are sending our team on paid annual leave after service tonight.
“Restaurant Orana really has been the little restaurant that could. I know we have had an impact on indigenous communities, and whether I have a restaurant at the end of this or not who knows.”
Restaurant Orana opened with a bang in Adelaide’s Rundle St in 2013. Chef Zonfrillo had controversially left Penfolds Magill Estate, blaming creative differences, and brought with him a team of key staff. It included Greta Wohlstadt, who resigned as the restaurant’s general manager several weeks ago.
The restaurant received a number of accolades over its life, including twice being named Restaurant of the Year in The Advertiser Food Awards and Best Restaurant in Australia by Gourmet Traveller.
Chef Zonfrillo’s original degustation menu of more than 20 courses – a crescendo of snacks and larger plates – was like nothing Adelaide had seen before. His use of indigenous ingredients helped put native foods in mainstream conversation.
Zonfrillo relocated Orana for a successful one-month pop-up in Sydney in July, 2019.
It’s yet unknown whether the announcement marks a change for the downstairs food lab.