‘It’s noise over nothing’: MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo insists that ‘favouritism is just not a thing’ despite anger from fans over his controversial decisions on the show
MasterChef Australia: Back To Win judge Jock Zonfrillo has denied claims that he shows favouritism to certain contestants in the competition.
In a column for this week’s Stellar Magazine, the 43-year-old declared: ‘Favouritism is just not a thing. It’s not something we would accept from one another as judges.’
‘At the end of the day, if it tastes rubbish, it tastes rubbish,’ he insisted.
Speaking out: MasterChef Australia: Back To Win judge Jock Zonfrillo (pictured) has denied claims that he shows favouritism to certain contestants in the competition
Fans have accused Jock of a ‘conflict of interest’ and the show of being ‘rigged’ regarding contestant Laura Sharrad, because she once worked under him.
Following her first appearance on MasterChef back in 2014, Laura went on to work as a pastry chef at Jock’s award-winning restaurant, Oran.
The issue arouse when the 24-year-old season six runner-up created a pasta dish during a cooking challenge on a recent episode, and won plenty of praise from Jock, leading to fan claims of favouritism.
In a column for this week’s Stellar Magazine , the 43-year-old declared: ‘Favouritism is just not a thing. It’s not something we would accept from one another as judges’
The Scottish-born chef added: ‘Twitter is its own bubble where there are 25 people who comment on things before they’ve even seen what happens’
Jock addressed the episode, saying: ‘In regards to ‘Pasta-gate’ if people count the number of times Laura makes pasta to the amount she hasn’t, I’m sure they’d find it’s almost equal – or there are more times she hasn’t made pasta.’
‘It’s a lot of noise over nothing’ he added.
He was also accused of showing favouritism towards Poh Ling Yeow after he chose her as the winner of a mystery box challenge last month.
Poh had managed to beat co-stars Laura Sharrad, Simon Toohey and Sarah Tiong – who arguably created more complex dishes – with her simple lemon sponge cake with lemon curd and torched Italian meringue.
Accusations: Fans have accused Jock of a ‘conflict of interest’ and the show of being ‘rigged’ regarding contestant Laura Sharrad (pictured), because she once worked under him
Jock addressed the episode, saying: ‘In regards to ‘Pasta-gate’ if people count the number of times Laura makes pasta to the amount she hasn’t, I’m sure they’d find it’s almost equal – or there are more times she hasn’t made pasta’
Talk: He was also accused of showing favouritism towards Poh Ling Yeow after he chose her as the winner of a mystery box challenge last month. ‘It’s a lot of noise over nothing’ he said
All of the judges agreed that the cake was a winning dish, but viewers singled out Jock for what they considered his ‘blatant’ bias in favour of Poh.
Many fans vented their frustration on Facebook, declaring it a ‘conspiracy’ and a ‘set-up’.
The Scottish-born chef and philanthropist concluded of the fan comments: ‘Having the support of your co-workers is even more important when there’s negative criticism thrown at you.
‘Twitter is its own bubble where there are 25 people who comment on things before they’ve even seen what happens.’
Read more: In this week’s issue of Stellar magazine