MasterChef judge Andy Allen says losing Jock Zonfrillo was “hardest time” of his life
MasterChef judge Andy Allen has revealed he was “buckled” by grief after the shock death of friend Jock Zonfrillo, experiencing the “most rotten days” of his life as his grappled with the enormous loss.
Fiona Byrne
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In so many ways MasterChef has been the making of Andy Allen.
Allen, 36, won MasterChef in 2011 and became a judge on the show alongside Jock Zonfrillo and Melissa Leong in 2020. Zonfrillo’s shock death in April 2023, saw the show evolve again, with Allen this year heading a new judging line up featuring Poh Ling Yeow, Jean-Christophe Novelli, and Sofia Levin. Allen is very much the heart of the show and the leader of the judges. His presence has been invaluable in making the audience comfortable with new faces while providing a link to the brand’s heritage. MasterChef’s total national audience this season is averaging 826,000 viewers. As the heat gets turned up on the remaining contestants in series 16 of MasterChef, I caught up with Allen to talk about being “buckled” by grief, the legacy of Zonfrillo, the power of food, having a beer with a Viking, and his sliding door moment with Marco Pierre White.
FB: Andy, when did you discover the superpower of cooking?
AA: When I went on MasterChef (in 2011) I did not do it to have a career in food, I did it to challenge myself. I knew I was not a great cook, but I knew I loved a challenge. I got hyped up by my friends and family, as you do, because they were the only people I really used to cook for. The only reason I started cooking was because I kind of cracked the code. When you get to your early 20s, everybody starts to get busy doing other things but when I shot out a text to my friends and family and said ‘hey, I am going to do a cook up this afternoon, come around and have a beer,’ everyone would turn up. It is that cliche that food does bring people together and that is what got me into it.
FB: You weren’t afraid to get your hands dirty when you signed up for the show.
AA: I was a fourth year apprentice electrician working with my cousin. I really enjoyed it but I knew I was not going to do it forever. Back then the MasterChef application was like a novel, it was something like 30 pages long. I still remember where I was, I was in Wickham, (NSW) when the phone rang. It was pissing down rain, and we were pulling cables through into this new development and it was ‘hey, this is so and so from MasterChef, would you like to come down to Sydney and audition?’.
FB: In your season the longer the show went on the better you got.
AA: I instantly viewed myself as the worst cook in the top 24, so for me it was just about surviving and not making a fool of myself on national TV. The show is filmed over six months. I did not have many successes until the last week. Looking back, I think going to Italy was the turning point when how to put flavours together clicked for me. The top seven went to Italy and after that I don’t think I lost a challenge until I was crowned the winner.
FB: You, Jock Zonfrillo and Melissa Leong replaced Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan as MasterChef’s judges in 2020.
AA: Matt, Gary and George, they have been so supportive of me. I got a text from all three of them after it was announced I was a judge and as much as they weren’t there anymore they still had so much attachment and affiliation with the show. If it wasn’t for those three and the way they mentored me – they nurtured me over that six month period (when he was a contestant), beat me down when I needed a good beat down and propped me up when I did half decent – we may not be having this conversation.
FB: How did the shock passing in 2023 of your dear friend Jock Zonfrillo affect you?
AA: It was the hardest time of my life. I had been quite lucky that I had not had someone close pass away. I had never had tragedy like that hit me so close. It was very uncharted waters and multiply that by it being in the public eye; it was really difficult. As soon as it happened I just wanted to be there for Loz (Lauren, Jock’s wife) and the kids, that was my focus. I don’t know if I gave myself the opportunity to grieve. I went overseas last year (around May) and I was in Sicily and I just had five of the most rotten days of my life. It was all around Jock’s birthday, we had won a Logie, there were three things in the space of a week and having that time to think, and not having distractions to keep me away from it, it really buckled me over there. I needed that to happen. I spent a full day just crying, a full day, in a couple of hour increments, just having a good old cry. Then I would be quiet and then I would go again. I have learned that it (grief) is just going to hit me and that is OK. That real, heavy weight, it only really hit me twice in the last season we shot.
FB: What was Jock’s gift?
AA: I always think back to how much of an impact he had on so many lives. Jock was doing a lot of things that impacted people’s lives before MasterChef, whether it be in the kitchen at Orana (his restaurant in Adelaide), or whether it be out in the country with the Indigenous people who he created such a bond with. Then it exploded when he was in the situation of being in the public eye. We lost someone who had so much more to give and that is what upsets me. People got to see the beginning of Jock and I just wish we got to see it for many, many more years to come.
FB: Has Jock’s death changed you?
AA: It would have definitely made me grow as a human. When times are hard you find out what you are made of. I don’t think those hard times are over, even Jock’s one year anniversary, it falls the day after my birthday every year so that, again, is another thing I grapple with.
FB: Do you have a mentor?
AA: I never used to be able to answer this question, but it is Jock. He was more than just the guy standing next to me in the studio. To have a relationship with him and his family, that is when you see the real Jock, when he is with Lauren and surrounded by his kids. He was a mentor probably more with that than anything else.
FB: How close were you to not returning to MasterChef?
AA: Pretty close. I was just worried that I was not going to be able to give it everything that it needed because at that time I had just come back from Europe and I had just seen what grief can really do when it really wants to kick you in the guts. I was just really sceptical whether I had the strength and that I was at the right time in my life to be able to go into something that I knew was going to take so much, so I was pretty close. Honestly, I did it (said yes to coming back) because I wanted to continue what Jock and I had started. I felt there was so much unfinished business, there was more to give and I am so glad that I did it.
FB: What is the chemistry like between you and the new MasterChef judges, Poh Ling Yeow, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Sofia Levin.
AA: We are all so different and have different experiences and strengths. It is a great team. The chemistry was instant. Everyone has so much passion, happiness, and positivity.
They (producers) have never tried to turn me into something I am not and that is the same with Jean-Christophe, the same with Poh, the same with Sofia. I went into the new season knowing it was going to be different, it just took me a while to give into how different it was. It was just different because I was missing the guy (Jock). It took me probably a month to let go of that and feel a bit more free to just let it happen. I have enjoyed taking on a kind of leadership role and being there for Jean-Christophe, Poh and Sofia. I am really proud to see the audience accepting them. They are successful because they themselves, they are not trying to put on anything, they are just being themselves.
FB: Are you returning next year as a MasterChef judge?
AA: Yes, 100 per cent.
FB: How did you end up with a beer brand, Travla, with Vikings and Boy Swallows Universe actor Travis Fimmel?
AA: I met Travis at a function and we chatted about this beer that he wanted to do. Him being a country boy and me being a country boy, when he told me he wanted to make a classic Australian lager and the branding would all be about celebrating country living, I was like ‘I love that’. This was nearly three years ago. At that point with beer everything was quite small and community focused. Trav wanted to celebrate the whole of Australia. The name was something we thought about a lot. We ended up landing on Travla. We wanted it to be aspirational for people to go out and travel to places around Australia.
FB: Jamie Oliver is a fan of Travla, I believe.
AA: Every time he goes to a party in Melbourne when he is out here he takes a six pack with him. He is such a beautiful, helpful, kind human being. When Alex (Allen’s wife) and I were in Europe last year, he (Oliver, who Allen worked with on MasterChef 2023) reached out, and said ‘If you are coming to London I’d love to take you out for dinner at The River Cafe.’ We sat there for four hours, had six courses of beautiful Italian food, and it has been a friendship that has blossomed off that dinner. For him to come back and be part of MasterChef this year was incredible. He wanted to do it for Jock and he wanted to support me as well.
FB: I hear you were pretty handy on the basketball court growing up.
AA: Sport in general, and more specifically basketball, it really did shape me as a person. I started playing when I was very young. I started playing with men when I was 16 and I was captain of the team when I was 18 and you just have to grow up. That forced me to grow up and be a leader and it gave me an understanding that there are probably better people out there doing this thing, but they need leadership and you can provide that.
FB: Is MasterChef a dream factory?
AA: MasterChef has given me absolutely everything.
FB: You have worked on MasterChef alongside Gordon Ramsay.
AA: I won’t forget that, to be introduced as a new judge by Gordon Ramsay (in 2020), that was very special.
FB: Was Marco Pierre White your sliding door moment on MasterChef?
AA: You could say that. I have met him twice. He was a guest judge on season four when I was a contestant and I need to thank Marco. I was down to the last three in a double elimination and Marco was like ‘I think Andy should stay’, that is what got me through. Without him backing me, I could have been going home.
FB: MasterChef, restaurants, beer, you have a lot going on Andy. After all that has happened are you able to enjoy your success?
AA: I am getting to the point where I am really proud of what I have been able to do. Being the winner of a reality TV show and then going into the big, bright lights of all that, I would never reflect on anything, I would just move on and move on and move on. I don’t know if what has happened over the last two years has had an impact, but I have started to reflect and it makes me really proud that I did come from that immature 23-year-old who could not read details on an application form. I still feel like I have so much more to prove and I hope I don’t lose that.
MasterChef, Channel 10, 7.30pm, Sunday – Wednesday.
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