MasterChef's Andy Allen recalls 4:30am call from Jock Zonfrillo's widow after his death: ‘In hysterics'

News.com.au

2 days ago

MasterChef Australia judge Andy Allen has recalled the heartbreaking phone call he received from Jock Zonfrillo's wife, alerting him of the beloved chef's death.
Speaking on the A Life of Greatness with Sarah Grynberg podcast, Allen detailed the early morning call he got from Italy with Lauren Zonfrillo on the other end delivering the sad news.
In the distressing long-distance call from two years ago, Lauren also asked Allen for a favour to bide her some time to grieve privately before she told Network Ten about her husband's death – and Allen, who was also Jock's best friend, did all he could to support her.
'I get a call at about 4.30 in the morning from Lauren in hysterics and telling me what had happened, that Jock had passed away,' Allen shared on the podcast episode, which aired Tuesday.
'I was then like, 'What do you need?' And she was like, 'Well, he's got a lot of press to do this morning.' And I had a bit of press to do as well. I was like, 'OK, I'll go do his press' because she didn't want to go to Ten … she needed to get a plan together.'
Reflecting on what transpired, Allen says he doesn't know how he soldiered on in the promotional trail, which fell on the eve of the show's season premiere in April 2023.
'That was the hardest thing,' Allen recalled. 'Crazy how it all works because I remember I was living in Carlton at the time and there are so many ways to get to Carlton from here. It was actually here in this [Melbourne] building that I had to come to do press.'
'And of all ways, the driver took me past the hotel where Jock had passed away. Talk about just being rattled again. I was trying so hard just to kind of be in the zone and get done what I needed to do.'
Allen said no one else knew of Jock's passing at the time and he continued to do press interviews pretending that everything was OK, despite Jock being found unresponsive in Zagame's House hotel on Lygon Street. His cause of death has never been publicly disclosed.
'Obviously, I hadn't told anyone,' Allen remembered. 'That was like, step one: get out – done. Then start the grieving process. For me the grieving process has been such a journey.'
Allen said in the six months after Jock's death, he tried to be there for other people, but it only put off his need to work through his own grief.
'I always wanted to be there for Loz and the family and do whatever I needed to do. But I think that prolonged my grieving process,' he said.
'I remember being in Europe with my wife and there was like three things that happened in a very short space of time. [The death,] it was Jock's birthday and I think we won another Logie or something. That were three really big things that happened and I just lost it. I just broke down.'
The MasterChef judge and food critic says he wasn't OK and realised he was neglecting himself and his marriage, while looking out for everyone else. So he took time to really work on himself, with therapy helping significantly.
'I still miss Jock every day, but I've learnt [there's] so much more to celebrate,' he said on the podcast. 'Sure, there's days where I have really bad days. But life is short, and [Jock] had a life and was so amazing at that life, and I want to celebrate that.'