Jock Zonfrillo recorded ‘secret interviews’ with celeb chefs before death

The late MasterChef judge reportedly made a series of ‘secret’ recordings before his untimely death last month, it’s been revealed.

Jock Zonfrillo filmed a series of secret interviews with celebrity chefs prior to his untimely death.

The MasterChef Australia judge, who was found dead in a Melbourne hotel room aged 46 in late April, had been producing his own video series, which he’d shot with high-profile guests amid their individual stints on the Channel 10 cooking show.

Daily Mail reports Zonfrillo would welcome guests into his trailer outside of filming the reality program to record wide-ranging interviews with them, shot casually on two smartphones.

He had reportedly been stockpiling the content over three years during his entire stint on the show, which began in 2020 alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen.

Some of the many stars to enter the MasterChef kitchen include British chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, who both paid tribute to Zonfrillo in The Project’s tribute special in early May, as well as Nigella Lawson and Curtis Stone.

Jock Zonfrillo died in late April aged 46.

Gordon Ramsay is one of the many high-profile chefs to have featured on MasterChef Australia, and also paid tribute to Zonfrillo in a Project special last month.

It comes after Zonfrillo’s widow, Lauren Fried, took to her husband’s Instagram page to break her silence following his passing, with news of his death surfacing just hours before MasterChef’s season 15 debut was set to air.

Lauren, who is the mother to two of Zonfrillo’s four children, said the Scottish chef had “a lot of projects” going on, as she asked his followers for advice on whether she should honour his unfinished works by releasing them publicly.

“Jock and I worked really hard on his social media and so I have to try to make a decision whether we keep it going or not,” she said.

“He had lots of projects he was working on – a lot that he had finished. I just don’t know what’s appropriate or what you guys want to see on here.

“So, you know, he’s got a lot of behind the scenes interviews and photos from MasterChef, he’s got books, a fashion range, he’s got spirits ageing in a distillery in Tassie.

“He’s got a TV show he filmed in Italy last year with the family. And so, as I kind of am pondering what is appropriate or not.

“If I don’t really know what’s right, I’ll put a poll up on here and you guys can tell me yes or no. And somehow, we’ll work out if there’s a path forward here or if we don’t do anything at all.”

Jock Zonfrillo with his widow Lauren and their kids Alfie and Isla. Picture: jockzonfrillo/facebook

Elsewhere, Lauren, who was in Rome at the time of Zonfrillo’s death with their two children, Alfie, 5, and Isla, 2, thanked fans for their support in the wake of the tragedy.

“It’s been a month now since we lost Jock and I put a line in the sand thinking that at the one month mark I would turn some sort of a corner, obviously that hasn’t happened,” Lauren said.

“There’s no time that I could allocate to say thank you to everyone. I just am overwhelmed by the messages that came in from people all over the world who knew him or didn’t know him.

“I wish he knew how loved he was and he knew the impact that he had on so many people.”