In Nomad Chef, Australia-based chef Jock Zonfrillo hunts, harvests and forages with indigenous people for the ingredients that go into their native dishes. In this journey that’s full of enlightenment and sometimes danger, Jock explores communities that have been forgotten and learn to cook as they do. He seeks to uncover what these hidden culinary geniuses can teach about living sustainably, cooking creatively and eating the best way we can.
From hunting fruit bats in the South Pacific to harvesting goose barnacles in Spain, Jock faces no shortage of adventure along the way. In each episode, Jock returns home to his restaurant, Orana, where he creates a new menu inspired by his trip. We recently had the opportunity to interview Jock Zonfrillo and decided to ask him a few questions:
What has been the highlight of filming Nomad Chef?
Wow, that’s such a hard question. I just – the highlight for me was more of a moment – rather than anything else, the moment when, I guess, I’m welcomed into a community. And that moment happened in every single country I went to. It’s that moment where I’m kind of asking if it’s okay if I’m there. You know, I’m asking for permission to stay with a community and stay with some people and learn from them. That moment when I’m sort of accepted is a really special moment. It’s kind of – you feel sort of enveloped by the community itself and made to feel very welcome, and everyone sort of opens up and accepts your presence there and starts sort of sharing their knowledge with you. And that, for me, in any country was without doubt the most special part, I would say.
And what was the most challenging part?
I think from a physical aspect it was very challenging to be sort of dropped into a remote community and then – like obviously, you know, I’ve got a particular diet within my life, you know, in the restaurant here in Australia. You know, I’m used to eating a certain type of food and then to be transported round the other side of the globe and dropped into a community where my diet changes in a heartbeat – it was challenging, physically, for me to process that change in diet immediately. And that was quite challenging, you know? It kind of rocked my system a little bit for, usually, the first couple of days. It was really, really challenging for my body to accept, all of a sudden, this change in diet. Obviously the people there in whichever community I’m staying at, they’re used to that particular diet wherever they were, but for me the changeover was challenging; very challenging.
Out of all the native cuisine you cooked in the Nomad Chef, which was the hardest?
I think the Faroe Islands probably challenged me personally more than any other episode and that’s just because of the nature of the ingredients in the Faroe Islands. And I won’t spoil the episode by revealing that, but certainly for me, you know, it’s one thing as a chef – as the Nomad Chef, my job is to go to somewhere and have a real look at the culture and the food within that culture and the relationship of food and culture. And to – I guess, you know, to look at whether something is delicious or not delicious etc. My job isn’t to go there and pass judgement whether something is ethically correct or not to eat, so for me, yeah, Faroe Islands was definitely a very, very challenging episode.
Have you always known you were going to be a chef?
Look, from a very early age I started working part time in a restaurant, and I started off washing dishes, actually, just to earn some money because I wanted to buy a push bike. And then after two weeks I got asked if I wanted to work in the kitchen which – I jumped at the opportunity because it really fascinated me. But talking to my mum actually the other month she was telling me that sort of exercise books at school – we used to have these exercise books at school where you’d come in in the morning and you’d write in your exercise book what you did the day before.
A lot of kids would write, you know, they played football or they played golf or they went out and rode their bicycle with their dad or whatever. And apparently my mum’s got loads of books – of these exercise books up in the storage loft and they all contain me writing and drawing pictures of food about what I ate for dinner last night or, you know, something like that; ‘We went out for ice cream.’ It was all food related apparently. Quite funny. So I think it was always there.
As a chef, do you find yourself rating other chef’s food when you go to their restaurants to eat?
No, I never rate anyone’s food; I just really enjoy other people’s interpretation of food anywhere around the world. I’m obsessed by food, I mean really. So I could be eating in a street stall or a restaurant; I’m just really grateful and happy to be there and experience something new.
What lesson have you taken back with you from filming the Nomad Chef from all the natives.
I think it’s just a lesson of cultural difference and acceptance of cultural difference. You know, I guess a lot of people might sort of squint and screw their face up and go, ‘Oh my god, I would never eat that,’ or ‘How could he possibly do that?’ But I think once you’ve been out there and experienced it and understood why they’re cooking or using ingredients like that in that place you very quickly realise how amazing it is that they’re able to do that. And so definitely – I mean I’m used to, I guess, cultural sensitivities here in Australia with the work that we do with aboriginal communities, but going overseas and going to communities abroad, remote communities around the world, it just made me realise that even more, I think, you know?
Join chef and adventurer, Jock Zonfrillo in TLC’s all-new 10-part series Nomad Chef, which premieres every Monday at 10PM, starting October 6. Encores every Tuesday at 4PM and Saturday at 8PM on TLC (Astro Channel 707).
