[2] Zonfrillo started working in kitchens at the age of 12 as a part-time dishwasher at the restaurant in which his older sister was waitressing.

The chef, Martin Krammer, sued Zonfrillo after suffering burns to his hand and was awarded damages in excess of $75,000 in 2007.

[1] In May 2007, Zonfrillo was declared bankrupt after a creditor's petition from Krammer was successful in the Federal Magistrates Court.

[1] He started importing and selling kitchen equipment and doing some consultancy, then briefly worked at the Austral after moving to Adelaide.

[5] In 2011, Zonfrillo was named head chef at Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant in South Australia but left after 18 months.

[1] On 5 October 2020, the companies which operated the restaurants entered into voluntary administration,[21][22][23] with substantial unpaid debts, amounting to approximately $3.2 million.

[1] A preliminary report filed by the administrators with ASIC in October 2020, recorded that initial investigations were being undertaken into whether the restaurant companies were trading while insolvent, if there had been unfair preferences or potential breaches of director duties, and concerning related party loans.

[25] In 2016, Zonfrillo started The Orana Foundation, to preserve historical cooking techniques and ingredients of Indigenous Australians.

[26] One of the foundation's projects was a database of 1,443 Aboriginal food plants created in partnership with the University of Adelaide.

Launched in September 2020, the database provided information about the plants' nutritional profile, taste, flavour, and optimal methods of preparation and cooking.

[29] In 2014, Zonfrillo hosted the Discovery Channel show Nomad Chef which saw him travel to communities in 10 countries to learn how they gather ingredients and cook.

[32][33][34] In October 2019, Zonfrillo was announced as one of the new judges for MasterChef Australia, alongside Melissa Leong and Andy Allen.

Marco Pierre White, referred to as a father figure in the book, stated that "almost everything he has written about me is untrue".

[1] Simon & Schuster replied that the book was "a historical account written from the personal knowledge of the subject writing it.

[54][55] It was later disclosed by Daily Mail Australia that he had been battling bowel cancer since 2021, and that when he wasn’t filming MasterChef, the Scottish-born chef was receiving treatment for the disease.