Creditors vote to accept $101,000 settlement offer from MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo and wife Lauren
The first pictures inside MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo’s closed restaurant have emerged as creditors vote to accept a deal.
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Creditors of companies run by MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo have accepted a $101,000 cash-settlement offer.
The celebrity chef and his wife made the offer through voluntary administrators he appointed to companies which operated his two restaurants, Orana and Bistro Blackwood.
The decision by creditors of the Living Room Pty Ltd and Blackwood Bistro Pty Ltd to agree to a deed of company arrangement means a liquidator will not be appointed to the two companies. Instead, one of Zonfrillo’s biggest creditors, The Maras Group, is expected to take separate legal action in a bid to recover more than $400,000 in outstanding rent.
The Rundle St-based property company, Australian Taxation Office and National Australia Bank were among creditors owed more than $1m by the Living Room Bar and Blackwood Bistro, which were run by Zonfrillo in Adelaide’s East End through another company, Zonfrillo Consulting Pty Ltd.
Voluntary administrators who conducted an investigation into the financial affairs of the companies found they may have traded while insolvent late last year but said a forensic investigation by a liquidator was needed for confirmation.
Zonfrillo has not made any public comment since he appointed chartered accountants KPMG as voluntary administrators the day before he announced Orana’s permanent closure on his social media accounts early last month.
In a report to creditors, administrators David Kidman and Martin Lewis recommended they accept an offer by Zonfrillo and his wife, Lauren, to pay $101,000 to settle the financial affairs of the Living Room Bar and Bistro Blackwood. Under the agreement, the couple agreed to forgo any claims to loans totalling $2.2m which they had made to the companies either personally or through other entities.
In their report, Mr Kidman and Mr Lewis said their charges for the voluntary administration had been capped at $40,000 while fees for implementing the deed of company arrangement would be $25,000. This left the remaining $36,000 for creditors, who were expected to receive between 5c and 10c in the dollar.
Mr Kidman and Mr Lewis said they had received a signed statutory declaration from Zonfrillo saying he had no cash or other assets which could be seized to help pay his companies’ debts. Nationwide land title searches had failed to find any properties in his name.
In a written statement published in the creditors’ report, Zonfrillo blamed COVID-19 for the closure of the acclaimed Orana, which left potential customers with $88,000 worth of unredeemed gift vouchers.
The only asset located was wine found inside a storage locker in Melbourne, where Zonfrillo and his wife have lived since earlier this year.