MasterChef judge 'utterly miserable' during filming

It’s one of the most coveted jobs in the cooking reality TV show world but new MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo has admitted he was ‘utterly miserable’ during filming in Melbourne.

It had nothing to do with the food being plated up by the Back To Win contestants though, with Jock explaining on this morning’s WSFM 101.7 Jonesy & Amanda show that he was down because he was apart from his beloved wife and kids.

Jock explained that his wife of three years, Lauren, is pregnant with their second child and during the early stages of coronavirus they were unsure of how bad it was going to get and had no idea how it would affect her pregnancy

They decided that it was best if Lauren went back to Adelaide with their two-year-old son and his 19-year-old daughter Ava, from a previous marriage, so they could isolate safely.

“It seemed like the safest thing to do but I was utterly miserable on my own for six weeks, it was awful,” Jock said.

The top chef went on with work and said once they started social distancing on set it ‘felt very weird’ and believes it ‘looks very weird’ on screen but it’s ‘just something they’ve had to get used to’.

Jock said he found it ‘very difficult’ not to be able to give the contestants a high five or a hug when they were eliminated as it’s ‘human nature’ to comfort someone when they’re upset.

The MasterChef judge went on to say that throughout his life he’s travelled quite a bit and has eaten ‘some very weird things’ in his time but they were ‘all of cultural importance to the community’ he was visiting at the time.

Explaining how he came to eat a bat, Jock said: “I know it’s a bat but when you’re there and you’re in some sort of comprehension and understanding of the culture you’re sitting in, the fact it’s a bat just fades into nothing and you’re just there in that moment, doing that thing with that culture learning something about them, it’s pretty amazing.

Interestingly, Jock said he found the bat ‘delicious’.

“You know when you’re in Italy and you have pasta and there’s two ingredients and you try and do it at home and it’s not the same? I’ve a feeling bat would probably be the same.” he joked

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