MasterChef judge unrecognisable in throwback snap

He’s won over the hearts of MasterChef viewers with his quick wit, undeniable knowledge of food and slick fashion sense but even his most ardent fans didn’t recognise Jock Zonfrillo in his latest Instagram photo.

The chef took to his social media account to post a throwback snap, which showed him at the age of 12, dressed in his chef’s uniform.

“Here’s where it all began, late 80’s in Scotland with my first Chef - Davie Auchie. If you are out there big man I owe you a pint or two,” Jock wrote.

Taken when he was working at Northpark restaurant in Scotland, Jock can be seen wearing a Santa hat with a big smile on his face on the far right of the photograph.

However, many fans were left flummoxed as to which of the five people in the snap was actually the now famous reality show judge.

“I thought you were the one in the middle. The smile could be similar,” one person wrote.

“You look so adorable. That smile is everything,” another fans said.

Others couldn’t get over the fact that at 12-years-old, Jock was already a key player on the restaurant’s kitchen team.

Indeed, Jock’s life story is far from boring, with the young Scottish chef going on to be fired from a Michelin star restaurant at the age of 17 after a foul-mouthed rant.

A drug addict since the age of 15, Jock made his way to celebrity chef Marco Pierre White’s restaurant at the Hyde Park Hotel in London, where he bagged himself a job in the kitchen.

On New Year’s Eve in 1999, Jock shot up his last dose of heroin before boarding a plane to Sydney and he’s been clean ever since.

Jock’s career has gone from strength-to-strength in Australia. He worked at Penfolds Wines’ flagship Magill restaurant before opening up his own establishment, Restaurant Orana, in 2013 in Adelaide.

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