The MasterChef Australia 2023 Grand Final was an emotional episode, as it was the final one that Jock Zonfrillo filmed before his sudden death on April 30.
At the conclusion of the Grand Finale, which saw Brent Draper take home the winning title, Network Ten played a tribute to the late TV host through a montage of clips showing his time on the show.
“Food’s been my entire life,” Jock can be heard saying over the montage. “The most important thing to me is giving back in the kitchen.”
The sequence wrapped up with Jock saying: “For the last time, go home, make yourselves a cup of tea, put your feet up and be kind to each other, we’ll see you back here tomorrow”.
The tribute then showed a photo of the MasterChef cast and crew which was captioned with his famous saying, “Give it up for Jock Zonfrillo”.
What did Jock’s widow say about the episode?
Lauren Fried, The widow of the late MasterChef Australia judge, shared a heartbreaking message on Instagram just hours before the cooking show’s grand finale aired.
Fried revealed that she and the children she shares with the late chef haven’t been emotionally ready to watch him during his final season of MasterChef.
“As a family, we’re going to try to watch it,” she explained. “We haven’t been able to watch this season just yet, something we will do, but we felt that tonight was an important one to watch.”
“Like most families, there are moments across the year that are special, and we used to really enjoy watching the finale together. It was something Jock was really proud of, it was a job he really loved doing, so we’ve decided we’re going to honour that and keep doing what we would normally do and watch the finale together.”
Fried added that while Zonfrillo may be gone, she plans on keeping his memory alive by sharing parts of his life with fans.
“So I just wanted to get on here and say, yes it is sad, but this is something he loved doing and this is not the end of the line for Jock at all. We have so many wonderful recipes of Jock having fun, of travel, of family stuff that I would love to share with everyone and it’s very much a way I can find meaning through all of this.”
Stream MasterChef Australia 2023 on 10Play.
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