Jock Zonfrillo has revealed he suffered a surprising allergic reaction during MasterChef filming

MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo has revealed details of a frightening medical emergency during filming of the hit TV show.

Masterchef judge Jock Zonfrillo has revealed he suffered a serious allergic reaction during filming of the cooking show.

The Scottish celebrity chef was in Apollo Bay for the episode airing on Monday when he had a sudden episode after handling crayfish.

In scenes that didn’t make it to air, Zonfrillo was lucky to have a nurse on standby with an EpiPen to save him.

“That day was a bad one, it got me in Apollo Bay,’’ Zonfrillo said.

“It was a breakdown of lobster and it pierced my skin when I was cracking the shell and then on the day all hell broke loose. I had a few EpiPens and I’ve always got one on me just in case.

“It would have been about five years ago, I was prepping marron and a little splash went in my eye and I just had the worst reaction.

“One side of my face just fell off pretty much. My throat closed up and I couldn’t breathe and I had been eating marrons the day before. That was a severe reaction.

Jock Zonfrillo had an allergic reaction after handling crayfish.

“Some days lobster gets me. It’s getting worse and it’s getting traction this reaction and it’s spanning into shellfish as well as marron. It’s mutating a bit like Covid.”

Zonfrillo was able to continue filming with fellow judges Andy Allen and Melissa Leong.

The Apollo Bay episode kicks off Coast, Country and City week, the first time the show was able to leave the MasterChef kitchen in well over a year.

“There’s new contestants this year and it was great to see them develop from being pretty green around the ears to being great cooks,’’ Zonfrillo said.

“You can see how much they’ve grown as cooks so far and it’s pretty inspiring.”

Zonfrillo said he was looking forward to being part of Celebrity MasterChef this year.

“We haven’t got into any of the production yet and haven’t really talked about it at all,’’ he said.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a huge breadth of cooking knowledge but in saying that it could surprise me.”