Rise to head chef Zonfrillo started working in kitchens at the age of 12 as a part-time dishwasher at the restaurant in which his older sister was waitressing. He stated that he started taking drugs, including
heroin at this time. While working at Arkle, he claimed that he started selling drugs to fund his heroin addiction. Zonfrillo next travelled to London where he worked for
Marco Pierre White at
The Restaurant Marco Pierre White. Zonfrillo was appointed to his first head chef position, at age 22, at The Tresanton Hotel in
Cornwall. He became head chef of Restaurant 41 where he began using
Australian native ingredients in his cooking. According to Krammer, "He [Zonfrillo] never paid me a cent." replacing Street ADL with Bistro Blackwood in September 2017. In August 2017, Orana was named Australia's 2018 Restaurant of the Year by
Gourmet Traveller magazine; the same year Zonfrillo was named Australia's 2018 Hottest Chef in
The Australian. In October 2018, Orana was named Australia's 2019 Restaurant of the Year by
The Good Food Guide, as well as being a three hatted restaurant in the 2019 and 2020
Chef Hat Awards. In 2016 and 2017, Zonfrillo ran a fixed
food truck called Nonna Mallozzi, serving Italian food. Zonfrillo opened a bar called Mallozzi in December 2018. He closed it in July 2019 after posting losses exceeding $140,000 in the time it was open. In late 2019, Bistro Blackwood closed, followed by Orana in March 2020. with substantial unpaid debts, amounting to approximately $3.2 million. Zonfrillo also had to sell his family home in the
Adelaide Hills after the closure of Orana.
The Orana Foundation In 2016, Zonfrillo started The Orana Foundation, to preserve historical cooking techniques and ingredients of
Indigenous Australians. The foundation was awarded
The Good Food Guide Food for Good Award in October 2017. One of the foundation's projects was a database of 1,443 Aboriginal food plants created in partnership with the
University of Adelaide. Launched in September 2020, the database provided information about the plants' nutritional profile, taste, flavour, and optimal methods of preparation and cooking. Zonfrillo launched defamation proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against the newspaper.
The Australian's publisher
Nationwide News settled the court case. An apology was printed in
The Australian newspaper on 17 December 2020 and published on their website.
Television In 2014, Zonfrillo hosted the
Discovery Channel show
Nomad Chef which saw him travel to communities in 10 countries to learn how they gather ingredients and cook. In October 2019, Zonfrillo was announced as one of the new judges for
MasterChef Australia, alongside
Melissa Leong and
Andy Allen. He had previously appeared as a guest chef on the show across three seasons.
Other work Zonfrillo was programming director of the
Tasting Australia food festival from 2016 to 2019. In July 2021, Zonfrillo began selling "
worry beads" bracelets with skulls on them for up to $500 each, under the brand Caim.
Memoir On 28 July 2021,
Simon & Schuster published Zonfrillo's memoir,
Last Shot. A subsequent feature in
The Sydney Morning Herald questioned his stories, notably his claims of having visited "hundreds of Indigenous communities", as well as stories of his drug use. Marco Pierre White, referred to as a father figure in the book, stated that "almost everything he has written about me is untrue". == Personal life ==