SA's MasterChef winner on Algoa FM Breakfast Show
An Interview with Shawn Godfrey on Algoa FM Breakfast with Wayne, Lee and Charlie T
Recently (April 5th 2022), Wayne, Lee and Charlie T interviewed me on Algoa FM Breakfast. If you missed it, you can listen to the recording below. I spoke about my roots in PE (Gqeberha), how and why I started The Roasted Dad, my other entrepreneurial ventures and winning MasterChef.
Below, you can read about the interview, if you don’t want to listen to the recording.
Algoa FM Breakfast with Wayne, Lee and Charlie T
The Algoa FM Breakfast Show with Wayne, Lee and Charlie T were adament that even though I have been described as Capetonian in the media, the word needed to get out there, that actually I am Gqeberha-born, even though I am now based in Cape Town.
These are the questions they asked - and my answers:
On TV, the MasterChef competition looks super intense and everyone's on edge. Did you at any point have an inkling that you were going to win?
At every single episode, I just wanted to cook my heart out. I didn't think I was going to win. I think it was half of the reason I won was that I was actually just focused on that episode and not getting ahead of myself. At no point did I think “I've got this”. I think that as soon as you think you've got it you relax a little and take your eye off the ball. And that's when you get kicked out. So staying in the moment, being present one episode at a time, was definitely my tactic.
Shawn, tell us, when you're not engineering or not cooking up a storm, what else do you do?
Oh my goodness, so I'm a busy man. So I've got a factory in Cape Town for lighting, called LED Lighting SA, and just under a 100 there. Then I've got a software business that I've got a partnership in and we do retail software (Lumalytic). And then I've got a call centre for engineering that does work to the UK (Livingstone Hub). And then recently, my wife and I started a new company called The Roasted Dad which is basically our new food entrepreneurial ventures. And there's a lot coming out of that obviously after MasterChef.
I was about to ask you how does this win impact your other businesses' interest as well? You just mentioned a couple of them.
So they're still going to be going as is. I'm still busy in all of them, but basically just looking for more resources in all the companies to support me as I go into the 4th adventure.
Shawn, you mentioned The Roasted Dad. That's also the name of your, Instagram handle. I follow you on Instagram, by the way. I see you hosted fellow contestant Ontiretse Molloyi at your home recently. Any friendships that you're gonna maintain now that the show's over?
Yeah. Definitely. So I really connected actually with, Sli, Thembi, and Onti, and still keeping in contact with them a lot, chat to them a lot. I'm a busy man. So, asand when we can, obviously, see them. And if they come to Cape Town, then I'll see them. But when I'm doing business trips, I'll be definitely catching up with them.
And speaking of friendships, I mean, when you are at home, having friends over, outside of the competition, what are you cooking?
I would say my signature, I go to pork belly all the time and it's been one of my my crazy obsessions. And actually, chef Callan Austin, one of the guys that I'm opening a restaurant with (The Chefs’ Collective) said to me” “You've got an obsession with pork.” And so we're calling one of the dishes on the menu ‘Shawn's obsession with pork’.
Shawn, we know you originate from, Gqeberha/Port Elizabeth, but where did your love of cooking originate from?
My mom had M.E. and so my sister and I started to help in the home. And at the age of thirteen or fourteen I started cooking more and more and my parents were really encouraging. So the more I was cooking the more they were encouraging, teling me I was great and I'm sure those dishes were absolutely terrible all the time. But they were always encouraging. And then in my 20s I started traveling with my wife and almost twice a year we were going overseas. And whenever we traveled overseas it was all about food and culture. It was my outlet in my busy life as I started to build businesses, I found that cooking was the one thing that seems to relax me. It is one thing that offsetss my mind and let’s it focus on something more creative. And then it got to COVID - it was brutal. We had 100 staff and we had to try and steer our company through the pandemic when we couldn't invoice out of the factory. And suddenly, we were locked inside our house and the only thing that could actually keep me calm and focused was cooking. And so my wife, Lianne, said I should start a blog called The Roasted Dad. She encouraged me to journal my food history and where I was going with it, and to just see where it goes. And that's what accelerated the whole process of my love and passion for food.
Fantastic. So the win could go either way in your home now. It could either mean that you're now expected to cook every night, or it could mean that you're exempt from cooking from this point onwards because you've certainly done your fair share. Which applies to your family setup at the moment.
I've always been the cook in the home, which is quite funny. And this is one of the things that I wanna actually tell, you know, guys in South Africa and entrepreneurs and busy businessmen, you can still cook in the home. You can still help with things that are traditionally more female-based roles in the home. And it's one of the things I'd love to hear. So Lianne and I, we equally share the whole household task, but cooking is one of those for me.
That's fantastic. I was actually gonna ask you what your recipe for success was, but I think we're gonna pin it down to that, a message for all the men out there: “Please cook more.” Listen, Shawn. You've you've had hundreds of interviews. Everybody wants a piece of you, but thank you so much for chatting to us this morning. Please make sure that, going forward, you do mention in the interviews that you are from PE. They're not gonna be worried about that, but for us, it's a big thing. We're from your neck of the woods. This is where you originate from, and we claim you proudly.
I agree. I agree.
Maybe, Shawn, just maybe one day you can prepare a deconstructed mielies and bean soup bowl for Lee and I.
Okay.
Shawn Godfrey, winner of MasterChef South Africa, wishing you all the best and, thank you for taking the time to chat us to us this morning, Shawn.
Huge pleasure. Thanks, guys.
Want to Watch MasterChef South Africa?
Want to know more about MasterChef Season 5?
I have written a blog post about the MasterChef season 5 contestants, and summaries for each of the previous MasterChef episodes.
About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares mostly recipes, but also Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).
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