Jock Zonfrillo’s long hours in the kitchen and battle with addiction took a huge toll on his personal life, leaving him with two failed marriages and “a deep mistrust of most people.”
But his pain and anguish evaporated on October 21, 2014, when he first met Lauren Fried in the bar of a waterfront hotel in Adelaide.
Zonfrillo, who died on Sunday at the age of 46, later described their meeting as “love at first sight.”
“I didn’t believe in the concept until it happened, but I couldn’t deny it,” he wrote in his memoir Last Shot.
The pair would later wed on New Year’s Day in 2017 and had children together Alfie, six, and Isla, two. He said his family made him feel like he had won a “gold medal.”
But just eight months before meeting his future wife — whom he affectionately named Loz — Zonfrillo delivered a grim assessment of how his career as a chef had affected his personal relationships.
Jock Zonfrillo, who died suddenly in Melbourne on Sunday, once said it was “love at first sight” when he met his wife Lauren Fried for their first date on Oct. 21, 2014. (They’re pictured with their kids Alfie and Isla)
Zonfrillo said his family made him feel like he had won a “gold medal.”
“Two divorces, a handful of friends because you don’t have time to spend with them, so that’s why you can count your close friends on one hand, and a deep mistrust of most people,” he told the Adelaide advertiser.
‘That’s what you’re left with at the end of the day.
Is it really that glamorous? I do not think so.’
He admitted that he had made mistakes in previous relationships and realized that he had been a “s*** partner to women.”
“Shortly before I met Loz, after a series of disastrous short-term relationships in Adelaide, after which I realized I was actually a pretty bad partner for women, I would finally put myself in therapy to try and fix myself,” he wrote.
He added, “I found myself spilling my guts and just telling her everything I didn’t want her to find out later: the drugs, the failed marriages, my daughters Ava and Sofia, from previous marriages.”
Fried, a panelist on the ABC series Gruen, initially contacted the twice-divorced MasterChef judge on Twitter, Zonfrillo recounted in his 2021 memoir Last Shot
Elsewhere in the memoir, Zonfrillo revealed how his wife’s love helped him soften the scars of drug addiction and divorce.
“The hours, the drugs, the burnout—it led me to two divorces and very few close friends because there just wasn’t time to nurture relationships…” he said.
“Then suddenly there was Loz.”
Fried, a panelist on the ABC series Gruen, initially contacted the twice-divorced MasterChef judge on Twitter.
She had just returned from a European vacation trying to get over a bad relationship when a mutual friend reached out and said the Scottish-born chef was “her kind of guy.”
After just a few days of talking on the phone, Zonfrillo was so impressed with the director of marketing that he flew from Adelaide to Sydney for their date.
“We were planning to take a water taxi to a restaurant on the harbor for lunch, so we met at the bar of the hotel on the water where I was staying,” he said.
She had just returned from a European vacation trying to get over a bad relationship when a mutual friend reached out and said the Scottish-born chef was ‘her kind of man’
“When she walked through the door, she smiled, and I just knew. We were going to be a thing, and it was going to be great. It was that simple.’
Zonfrillo said he and Fried quickly and madly fell in love, with their first date in Sydney lasting three days before he asked her to come back to Adelaide with him.
“By that weekend, we were telling each other that we loved each other. It was totally unexpected. I’d kind of given up on ever finding anyone again,” he said.
The couple started a long and happy relationship from then on and welcomed their first child, a son named Alfie in 2018.
He was born two months premature and weighed just 1.2kg at the time of his birth, meaning he spent time in intensive care before going home.
In a 2020 social media post, Zonfrillo reflected on the traumatic experience.
“Our little Alfie was born two months premature, weighed 1.2kg and spent the first five weeks of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit,” he said on Instagram.
“He’s a happy, healthy little boy now, just like most other 2.5 year olds. Those very difficult weeks sometimes feel like a lifetime ago, and on days like today we feel very alive.’
Zonfrillo’s youngest child, Isla, was born in 2020. The now two-year-old, along with the chief’s three other children, was the light of his life.
“I couldn’t ask for more — a healthy baby, happy siblings, and a rock star wife. The Zonfrillo clan has never been happier,” Zonfrillo said on Instagram when she was born.
After just a few days of talking on the phone, Zonfrillo was so impressed with the director of marketing that he flew from Adelaide to Sydney for their date
The restaurateur leaves behind Fried and their children, as well as his teenage daughters from his first two marriages, Ava and Sophie.
The grieving widow has now deleted her Instagram account, which was filled with happy photos from their recent Italian vacation together, as she mourns her husband.
Jock was found dead at 2am Monday morning in a Melbourne hotel after police were called for a welfare check.
No cause of death has been released, but police say his death is not being treated as suspicious. A report is being prepared for the coroner.
For confidential support, call Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14