Gordon Ramsay, Matt Moran and George Calombaris among who’s who of celebrity chefs at wake held for their TV star mate Jock Zonfrillo: ‘We went off-piste’
When four of the most familiar faces on television cooking shows dine out they will inevitably turn heads, but sharing a meal for this famous group was all about toasting an absent mate.
British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay joined Australian counterparts Matt Moran, George Calombaris and Shannon Bennett to remember Jock Zonfrillo at an intimate wake.
The headline-grabbing quartet gathered to pay tribute to their late friend and swap stories over food and a few rounds of drinks.
Zonfrillo, the much-loved MasterChef judge and father-of-four, was found dead in a hotel room in Carlton on April 30 aged 46.
Gordon Ramsay joined some of Australia’s best-known celebrity chefs for dinner in Melbourne on Saturday night to remember late friend Jock Zonfrillo. (Pictured from left: Shannon Bennett, George Calombaris, Ramsay and Matt Moran)
Gordon Ramsay (right) and Matt Moran (left) have spoken about a dinner they had with fellow chefs George Calombaris and Shannon Bennett in honour of their late make Jock Zonfrillo. Ramsay and Moran are pictured at Moran’s restaurant on Sydney Harbour on Thursday
Moran booked the table for four at Melbourne’s Di Stasio restaurant last Saturday night for what Ramsay told Daily Mail Australia was a sombre event.
‘The atmosphere was solemn,’ Ramsay said. ‘Intense. And then we had a couple of glasses of wine to relax and we started to think about those incredible memories.’
‘It was sombre because every time we went off-piste we came back to some of the magical moments that we’d witnessed and been party to.’
The 56-year-old has just finished a hugely successful three-day residency of his Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Moran’s fine diner Aria on Sydney Harbour.
It was the first time Ramsay had taken his three-Michelin star London restaurant with its signature shellfish raviolo and a pecan praline dessert to an overseas site.
Zonfrillo (pictured in 2017) died on April 30 at the age of 46. He is survived by his third wife, Lauren Fried, and his four children: grown-up daughters Ava and Sophia, from his first two marriages, and six-year-old Alfie and two-year-old Isla, with Fried
Moran and his chef friends might be spread across the globe but Zonfrillo’s death had united them all.
Ramsay, Bennett and Zonfrillo all once worked under legendary British chef Marco Pierre White.
Bennett, who like Ramsay and Moran has regularly appeared on MasterChef, is best known from his days running Melbourne restaurant Vue de Monde.
Calombaris is a former MasterChef judge who has also run a string of eateries in the Victorian capital.
‘As a chef community, I’m not just close to the Melbourne guys,’ 53-year-old Moran said. ‘The Melbourne guys are close to the Sydney guys.
‘I’ve got chef mates all around the world and we are a very small community and when something like that happens, as tragic as it is, it sort of brings us all closer together.’
Ramsay has finished a successful three-day residency of his Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Moran’s fine diner Aria on Sydney Harbour. He is pictured at Aria on Wednesday night
This week was the first time Ramsay had set up his three-Michelin star restaurant in London’s Chelsea with its signature shellfish raviolo and a pecan praline dessert at an overseas site
That’s exactly what Moran, Ramsay, Bennett and Calombaris were doing last Saturday night.
‘It was all about the memories, which was great,’ Moran said. ‘It was more remembering and having a toast to him.
‘There was a lot of talk about being young chefs and growing up in that environment.’
Ramsay said Zonfrillo had been kind to his daughter Tilly when she was a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef Australia in 2021.
‘Just from a dad’s point of view, how he handled Tilly and the way he looked after Tilly outside of production just goes to show the 360 of what that guy was and what he stood for and how good he was,’ he said.
Ramsay reunited with George Calombaris, Shannon Bennett and Matt Moran for a bittersweet catch-up as they swapped stories about Zonfrillo over food and several rounds of drinks
After the dinner, 47-year-old Bennett posted a picture on Instagram of the chefs posing at the venue and captioned it: ‘That hangover was for you, Jock Zonfrillo mate. RIP brother.’
The four men were standing in front of a table with several empty wine glasses on it.
Calombaris, 44, also posted a photo of the group, and wrote: ‘A great dinner with a couple of beautiful humans. Love you boys.’
The following night The Sunday Project aired a special tribute to the Zonfrillo ahead of the premiere of his final season of MasterChef Australia.
Ramsay broke down in tears during that program as he described how Zonfrillo ‘lit up the kitchen’.
‘The ripples have been devastating. No one’s going to get over this quickly. If there’s one thing we’ve done as chefs is we’ve united and we’re talking about the good times,’ he said, fighting back tears.
‘S**t. Sorry. It’s just so painful. That’s all,’ he added.
Australian chef Curtis Stone remembered Zonfrillo as a ‘kind, fair, genuine and honest’ man.
Stone called the plain-speaking Scotsman someone who ‘treated everyone with respect – unless they didn’t deserve it, then he wouldn’t’.
Zonfrillo is survived by his third wife, Lauren Fried, and his four children: grown-up daughters Ava and Sophia from his first two marriages, and six-year-old Alfie and two-year-old Isla with Fried.
Sources said police found nothing suspicious or unusual in Zonfrillo’s hotel room and it appeared he had died of natural causes. A report is being prepared for the coroner.
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