Jock Zonfrillo put Restaurant Orana into voluntary administration before announcing permanent closure
World-famous Adelaide restaurant Orana was placed into voluntary administration by its high-profile owner, Jock Zonfrillo, before he publicly announced its closure.
City
Don't miss out on the headlines from City. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Zonfrillo confirms his Adelaide Orana restaurant will never reopen
- COVID cooked Orana, Zonfrillo says
High-flying Adelaide chef Jock Zonfrillo put his acclaimed Orana restaurant into voluntary administration before publicly announcing its permanent closure, it has emerged.
Zonfrillo, 44, has confirmed he appointed chartered accountants KPMG to The Living Room Bar Pty Ltd and Blackwood Bistro Pty Ltd on Monday to finalise their financial affairs.
The two companies were involved in the operation of Restaurant Orana and Bistro Blackwood in a two-storey building on Rundle St in Adelaide’s East End.
Neither restaurant has been open since before the coronavirus pandemic began earlier this year while a wine bar, Mallozzi, run by Zonfrillo and a business partner, Shaun Lau, closed last year after less than six months in business.
“The restaurants currently aren’t trading and even though we’re up to date with paying staff their leave, redundancies and super, and all our lodgements with the ATO, we decided it was in the best interests of all parties involved to appoint KPMG as voluntary administrators to work on a solution with our small pool of trade creditors, the ATO, landlord and bank,” said Zonfrillo.
“KPMG have started the process and we expect that the process will be finalised over the coming months.”
KPMG partner David Kidman said he and Martin Lewis had been appointed as voluntary administrators “over the entities that previously operated the Orana and Blackwood Bistro restaurants”.
“These restaurants will not reopen and it is intended that a proposal will be put to creditors by the former director (Zonfrillo) for their consideration,” he said.
“The administrators have only commenced their investigations and will likely provide a report to creditors in early November.”
Voluntary administration typically lasts for 28 days and involves financial experts forensically examining the affairs of a company before recommending steps to restructure or placing the entity into receivership or liquidation.
Zonfrillo used his social media accounts on Tuesday to announce he had decided to permanently close Orana, which won national and international acclaim for a menu based on native Australian ingredients.
On Wednesday, he blamed COVID-19 for the decision, saying Orana’s viability had been ruined because of social distancing while most of its customers came from interstate or overseas.
The MasterChef judge and former advisor to the Tasting Australia event moved with his wife, Lauren, 40, and their young son to Melbourne earlier this year.
They had been living in a semi-rural property at Summertown, in the Adelaide Hills, which sold for $1.2 million in January.
The couple are involved in a number of companies, including Orana Foundation Pty Ltd, which was working with the University of Adelaide on a database detailing indigenous food.
Zonfrillo also is a director of Zonfrillo Consulting Pty Ltd and Zonfrillo Pty Ltd while his previous directorships included Restaurant Orana Charitable Foundation Pty Ltd, Trattoria Mallozzi Pty Ltd, Mallozzi Pty Ltd, Walkabout Kitchen Pty Ltd and Greyfriars Holdings Pty Ltd.
His wife is a director of Pulse Collective Pty Ltd, Australian Distillery Pty Ltd, Australian Flavour Lab Pty Ltd, Australian Ingredients Pty Ltd, Caledonia Farm Pty Ltd, Carzon Investments Pty Ltd, Pulse Group Holdings Pty Ltd and Xelina Pty Ltd.