The close culinary friends of Jock Zonfrillo have honoured the late chef with an “intimate” and “sombre” wake.
Gordon Ramsay, Matt Moran, Shannon Bennett and George Calombaris all joined together at Melbourne’s Di Stasio restaurant last Saturday night, as the group of friends shared stories about their fallen friend.
Jock, celebrity chef and host of Masterchef Australia, was found dead in hotel room in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton on April 30th, at the age of 46.
As the famous chefs gathered to remember their friend, Ramsay told Daily Mail Australia that there was a profound sadness to their get together.
“The atmosphere was solemn,” Ramsay said. “Intense. And then we had a couple of glasses of wine to relax and we started to think about those incredible memories.”
“It was sombre because every time we went off-piste we came back to some of the magical moments that we’d witnessed and been party to.”
Matt Moran went on to say how important their tight-knit clique had become in the face of such a tragedy.
“I’ve got chef mates all around the world and we are a very small community and when something like that happens, as tragic as it is, it sort of brings us all closer together,” he said.
“It was all about the memories, which was great,” Moran said. “It was more remembering and having a toast to him.”
“There was a lot of talk about being young chefs and growing up in that environment.”
Shannon Bennett summed up their evening with a series of photos on Instagram, writing the caption, “That hangover was for you mate. RIP brother”.
Image credits: Instagram
This article first appeared on Over60.