Jock Zonfrillo in hot water as a fresh scandal rocks a MasterChef judge

Culinary scandals seem to follow MasterChef judges.

When George Calombaris’s MAdE Establishment Group admitted to underpaying more than $7.83 million in wages to more than 500 employees, it not only threw Colambaris out of the frying pan and into the fire, it also marked the beginning of the end for Colambaris. Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston on the popular channel 10 show.

This year Restaurant Orana owner and newly appointed MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo is being grilled for his lack of transparency in the management of his not-for-profit charity, The Orana Foundation, which he started in 2016.

It was that year that things started to take off for the Adelaide-based restaurateur, who founded Restaurant Orana in November 2013.

Restaurant Orana was the culmination of Zonfrillo’s opinion about Australia’s lack of culture and protection for the Aboriginal people.

As the restaurant gained in popularity for its focus on native ingredients from Australia’s indigenous community including green ants and kakado plums, it garnered the attention of the Australian Tourism Board and South Australian government.

The South Australian government handed his charity — the Orana Foundation — $1.25 million for a “comprehensive native food database” and cultivation projects.

Which brings us to the dispute.

A leading article in today’s The Australian newspaper claims the Scottish chef has failed to produce the promised Native Foods Database despite receiving the $1.2 million in funds.

In an exclusive article for the Australian, journalist Victoria Laurie has claimed the charity has paid out almost $500,000 to companies associ­ated with Zonfrillo and his wife, Lauren Fried. A substantial amount in salaries has also been paid in salaries to Orana Foundation’s key managers.

In his defence, Zonfrillo has stated funds from the Orana Foundation have been used to pay legal fees in a nine-month long dispute with database partner the University of South Australia. Zonfrillo has claimed the database is finished and ready for release, but is being held up by the higher learning institution. He also said the database cannot be made public until intellectual property issues and problems of access to sensitive cultural knowledge are resolved.

“The intention was that it would be put in the hands of an indigenous enterprise. That’s what we think should happen because a white enterprise holding indigenous information is not a great look.”

Adelaide University claims the database has been sent.

According to The Department of Primary Industries and Regions, which oversaw the grant, the project completion date was 30 September.

“Since the project commenced in mid-2017, the Orana Foundation has provided regular milestone reports to Primary Industries and Regions SA as required by the deed, along with other updates in relation to the project,” the department said in a statement.

Orana Foundation full time employee Norman Gillespie says the foundation has a memorandum of understanding with the South Australian Research and Development Institute to develop the database base “for the next big thing in food, something the university couldn’t do”.

Gillespie said the foundation wanted an indigenous intellectual property lawyer to vet the database before handing it over.

“I can understand there being a bit of angst around this,” he told The Australian.

On a lighter note, Zonfrillo also came under fire this week for not recognising MasterChef contestant Reynold Poernomo’s stunning dessert as a golden snitch, admitting he knew nothing about Harry Potter and the wizarding world.