Who would have thought a Scot of Italian origin would be helping Australia rediscover the history and secrets of its native Aboriginal food? Jock Zonfrillo, born to a Scottish mother and a father of Neapolitan descent, has become one of the most interesting names on the culinary scene Down Under. As you might imagine, his is a fascinating story.
Young Jock was born into a working-class family and grew up in Glasgow in the 1980s, not necessarily the easiest of places. Though his early years were marked by volatility and he went through dark times, his passion for cooking proved strong and won out in the end. At 13 he started washing dishes in a restaurant in order to save money to buy a bicycle. He left school at 15 and started an apprenticeship in a hotel in the city, where he learned the basics of French cuisine, while also discovering the joys of foraging, picking mushrooms in the park that surrounded the hotel.
He went on to work in various high-end restaurants around the UK before ending up in London, at the celebrated Restaurant Marco Pierre White. In the early 2000s Jock decided it was time for a change and moved to Australia. This proved the making of him, both as a man and a chef.
The first stop was Sydney, where he began working at Forty One, a fashionable restaurant serving Asian-accented fusion cuisine. Jock grew curious about the history of the country’s native inhabitants, and particularly their store of knowledge about food. He quickly developed a fascination, as both a chef and a researcher, with an ancient culture that has always been in harmony with the land, respecting it and celebrating its fruits, herbs and fauna. His interests were initially snubbed by the owners of the restaurant where he was working, so Jock continued his personal research independently, contacting Aboriginal communities along the coast and inland and learning more about their ancient knowledge of nature and its resources.
He travelled the country with indigenous elders, learning to recognize its native berries, plants and animals, before taking the great leap of introducing a menu using Aboriginal products at the restaurant where he was working at the time, Magill Estate, part of the famous Penfolds winery. Various changes then led him to decide to set out on his own.
Wanting to learn more and seek out experiences similar to his own, Jock flew to Brazil to meet a famous chef who had followed a similar path, Alex Atala (another Academic Tables guest, back in 2014). Jock and Alex exchanged impressions and information and shared their passion for researching the skills and knowledge of indigenous communities.
In autumn 2013, sacrifices and loans enabled him to open his own two restaurants in Adelaide, Street and Orana. The menus feature little-known but ancient flavors that reflect the history and culture of native Australians, with ingredients like purple riberries, leaves and flowers from karkalla and pandanus plants, dorrigo pepper from a native shrub that grows in the Australian rainforests and gubinge, a variety of wild plum.
Zonfrillo learned that there are 20,000 edible species native to Australia, an immense heritage to be deciphered and promoted. In his restaurants, the chefs practice foraging on a daily basis, whether collecting mushrooms in the woods, gathering seaweed along the beach or picking vegetables and wild greens that grow in the gardens around their homes.
He has become a household name thanks to his television appearances on Masterchef Australia and on his own program Nomad Chef, which saw him travelling the world to sample bats in the Vanuatu islands and raw cow’s stomach in Ethiopia, and his menus featuring kangaroo loin and crocodile steak have also contributed to his fame. But Jock Zonfrillo is much more than this. This Scottish chef has chosen to immerse himself in Aboriginal cuisine, investing ten years of research, during which he worked with Aboriginal communities and anthropologists, exploring the link between indigenous ingredients and respect for the land and the native culture.
At Academic Tables Jock Zonfrillo will be cooking for the UNISG students from Tuesday June 7 to Friday June 10. He will be preparing eight dishes, using local ingredients but integrating some Australian flavors. The menu starts with crunchy cabbage salad with vegetables, pine oil and radishes, followed by smoked summer squash with hazelnuts and thyme, then smoked steak, potatoes, Tropea onions and pickled cherries, and finishing with buttermilk cake with strawberries, eucalyptus and macadamia nuts. There will also be summer squash, fava beans and sorrel, followed by pickled vegetables, dorrigo pepper, lilly pilly and Australian myrtle, then mackerel with endive, fennel and pepper, and for dessert carrots, yogurt and Davidson plums.