'Insulting': Jock Zonfrillo slams negative coverage at launch of Indigenous food database

Chef and restaurateur Jock Zonfrillo has defended his track record on Indigenous affairs after his lawyers launched defamation proceedings against The Australian newspaper last week.

On Friday the MasterChef host filed a statement of claim alleging the masthead defamed him by suggesting he "dishonestly claimed" he would support a prawn farm run by an Indigenous corporation in an effort to win the prestigious Basque Culinary World Prize.

Zonfrillo is the founder of hatted Restaurant Orana which uses native Indigenous ingredients. He also runs the Orana Foundation which seeks to bring Indigenous food and culture to global attention.

The foundation received a $1.25 million grant from the South Australian government in 2016 to produce an Indigenous food database that was launched on Wednesday.

Zonfrillo expressed his frustration at the negative coverage in The Australian, but refused to let the criticism undermine his work over 20 years with Indigenous communities.

"Personally it's insulting and it's hurtful," he told Good Food.

"I don't think one article undoes that at all, and certainly not one tall poppy industry opinion.

"If you look at my track record in Indigenous communities, it speaks volumes compared to some people who haven't done anything.

"If it was true, it would cut deep. It's not, so it doesn't. I'm a boy from Glasgow so you've got to more than throw mud to hurt me."

The comprehensive database features 1443 Indigenous foods.

The Scottish-born chef made a name for himself at his Adelaide-based restaurant which he says he founded to bring attention to Indigenous food.

Zonfrillo said the database would help "preserve the knowledge in a modern way for future generations" and "put Indigenous Australians in the driving seat for any opportunities going forward".

He said his passion for the project came from seeking to preserve Indigenous knowledge from being lost. He will relinquish control of the database and return it to Indigenous custodians.

"I didn't go in there and mine information for my own game, it was the act of giving back," he said.

The information will be guarded by the custodians, with each Indigenous group deciding what to do with their intellectual property.

"It could be a time capsule for traditional knowledge. It could be [for] schools for education. It could be for commercialisation."

The Orana Foundation board director and Wakka Wakka woman Jo Willmot said the world could learn a lot about food from "the oldest continuous living culture".

"If Aboriginal people were able to co-exist for this long, there has to be something about the food and nourishment and nurturing that Aboriginal people were able to participate [in] and pass on as a legacy," she said.