Inside Laura Sharrad’s secret love story: How MasterChef’s pasta queen met her husband Max five years ago… thanks to judge Jock Zonfrillo
MasterChef Australia star Laura Sharrad married fellow chef Max in a beautiful wedding in 2018.
But their love story actually began three years earlier, thanks to MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo.
After finishing second on season six, Laura, whose surname at the time was Cassai, began working as a pastry chef at Jock’s Orana restaurant in Adelaide in 2015.
Inside Laura Sharrad’s secret love story: MasterChef star Laura Sharrad’s love story with fellow chef Max began back in 2015 thanks to judge Jock Zonfrillo
She found herself working in the kitchen with Max Sharrad, and their romance quickly blossomed.
‘I knew from day one. I could just tell, it was love at first sight,’ Max told The Adelaide Advertiser in 2017, following their engagement in Tuscany.
Speaking of the romantic sunset proposal, Laura said: ‘As soon as he pulled out the little box, I just started crying and blubbering… I cried the whole time. It was simply beautiful, just perfect.’
Matchmaker: At the time Laura had just started working as a pastry chef at Jock’s Adelaide restaurant Orana, working alongside Max (Pictured: Jock Zonfrillo)
Perfect proposal: In 2017, Max popped the question to Laura in Tuscany at sunset. She said of the proposal, ‘I cried the whole time. It was simply beautiful, just perfect’
Max added: ‘Though she didn’t really say yes, she was just crying and nodding. But I’m stoked. She’s the woman of my dreams.’
The couple tied the knot in Adelaide’s Barossa Valley in 2018, surrounded by friends and family.
They are also business partners, and opened up their own Italian restaurant, Nido, in Adelaide’s Hyde Park last year.
Working together: Max and Laura also opened up their own restaurant Nido, which is Italian for nest, in 2019. He told Adelaide Now that they play to each others strengths and weaknesses in the kitchen
Max told Adelaide Now in April last year that he and Laura were the perfect team in the kitchen.
‘She has strengths where I might not have them, like making those delicate little pasta shapes and the intricacies of pastry,’ he said.
‘My mind goes at a million miles an hour so I might not have the patience for that. Her strengths play to my weaknesses, and vice-versa.’
Laura is currently in the running for a place in the top five on MasterChef: Back to Win, which continues Sunday at 7:30pm on Channel 10.
She previously said she had sacrificed their restaurant to take part in the show.
‘Not only had I left my husband Max back at home in Adelaide, but our business too. Everyone’s made sacrifices to be on the show, but I used that as fuel to push me in every cook,’ she told TV Week.
‘I used that as fuel to push me in every cook’: Laura is currently in the running for a place in the top five of MasterChef: Back To Win and previously said she has sacrificed their restaurant to take part in the show