Clarence Ford in conversation with The Roasted Dad
Clarence Ford interviews MasterChef SA winner Shawn Godfrey on Cape Talk’s ‘Views & News’
From snoek basted with jam, boerewors rolls topped with peach chutney and ribs smothered in sticky plum sauce, South Africans know how well stone fruit goes with our favourite pastime – a braai! All through the summer months there’s a steady supply of locally grown peaches, nectarines and plums. While they are juicy and delicious as whole fruit enjoyed at any time of day, there’s so much more we can do with this versatile fruit to elevate our entertaining and family meals. After collaborating with Juicy Delicious and creating several recipes including stone fruit, I was invited on Cape Talk to cook three of these dishes and share some braai tips.
Clarence Ford interviewed me on her show “Views & News’’” on Cape Talk. If you missed it, you can listen to the recording below. I spoke about …
If you don’t want to listen to the recording you can read a transcript of the interview below. It’s also available on Apple Podcasts, so you can listen on the go!
The Interview
Pippa introduced me as The Roasted Dad but explained how I still juggle my work as an industrial engineer with my work in the kitchen. And she rightfully pointed out that I enjoy both of them still thoroughly.
Food must be a love affair for you.
It is. So I'm a very busy entrepreneur.
So food is my love, my out outlet. The kids join me. The family joins me. So it's encompassing everything in my world that looks happy to me, actually.
Did you just stumble upon it, or was it always meant to be?
I think it was always meant to be. As a child, I was always, cooking lasagnas and cooking for the family, so it started there. And then COVID kicked me up the backside and forced me down the food industry, and I've absolutely loved it ever since.
The Roasted Dad, where does that come from?
During the pandemic lockdown I was bouncing off the walls with my business really struggling through COVID. My wife encouraged me to start food blogging and writing a recipe every day. And when I started an Instagram handle I needed a handle that incorporated cooking and being a father of three, and ‘the roasted dad’ was it. It just rang true, and that's it. It's been The Roasted Dad ever since. And I guess as just an extension of the Roasted family. Yeah. We've got The Roasted Mom. We've got The Roasted Dog.
We've got roasted everything.
The Roasted Dog? I think my wife is gonna love this
It's a little, French bulldog. He's a little bit of a maniac if you're wondering.
Let’s talk about stone fruits and how you've incorporated it into your your masterpieces. Why stone fruit?
I think this is really down to South Africa's heart. And as you can see, the meal that I've prepared is very much, around our hero dishes, our hero meats, our hero stone fruits. And if you look at it, I think, look at all our cuisines in South Africa. Fruit often gets integrated in chutney into all in in all different cultures actually, we integrate fruits.
We've got a wealth of stone fruit all around us in South Africa, some of the best in the world. So why wouldn't we integrate it into our braai? I think South African food is really maturing and we're starting to believe in ourselves and actually trust that we've got the hero ingredients and also the hero dishes. And so it really has been there. I think we just haven't loved it and we've always tried to be international. And now we're starting to realize, hang on, let's celebrate what we have right here on our doorstep.
So what are we talking about?
We're talking about peaches and plums, etcetera, on a fire. Nectarines and all sorts of things on the fire. And I think, this is where fear starts to be induced into people and they think, oh, what on earth would you put a fruit on the fire for? But I think if you know what you're doing and you start to treat a stone fruit like a meat would in terms of marinating and being quick on the braai, like a lamb chop. You wanna do it quickly. You wanna do nice grill marks. The flavour is beautiful when you do that. The grill marks. It is appealing to the eye indeed. You can see it's come off a flame.
So it is an open flame?
Yeah. So you can do it on the stove as well with a a grill. But, my suggestion is why wouldn't you want that smokiness and that beautiful flavor that we get over South African briar into our food?
So you have a preferred wood that you would use for the braai?
Oh, yes. Definitely. It's called sekel. I hope it don't cause, now all of it to be disappeared in the Western Capes then I can't get.
So is sekelhout a preferred kind of wood for professional braaiers like yourself?
I'm not too sure. I mean, we're obviously very aware of kameeldoring, and that's a huge one that we all hear of. But, circle is a lot smaller pieces.
Also burns really hot and keeps nice coals, but you don't have to take two hours to try and get it to coal level.
So all of this started off as as an Instagram account during COVID.
Correct. Yeah.
And and your influences, your inspiration, you got from where?
Honestly, inspiration from the family. And, just starting to realize that I I really do enjoy perfecting something. And recipes were a way to take some all the unknowns of the South African ingredients that we have and put it into something delicious that I could share with my family. I think, you know, we're all going through COVID and it was tough times, but this was an outlet.
This was, something beautiful of that time that I could make. And, so that's why I ended up with the roasted dad and all the cooking.
So there's a couple of things that stand out here. Smoked snoek on a braai with a quick plum jam, ostrich fillet, kebabs with nectarine and rosemary, lamb loin chops with a delicious mint and peach salsa, crispy pork, belly served with nectarine and wine sauce, grilled plum, crispy pancetta, and fresh mozzarella, calzone with fresh watercress, beetroot, apple, and plum.
Have you got all of that for me to taste today?
Not all of them, but, all those recipes are available on Juicy Delicious website. So if you log on to the website, you'll actually see my profile there, and you can get all these web, these, recipes. Today, what I've made for you is, the beetroot, walnuts, and apricots and blue cheese little salad with Granny Smith apples.
And then the second dish that I've got here Granny Smith apples. Yeah. It's a nice sour tartness that you get through with the the all the sweets and the creamy blue. And then have you noticed again again, really like South African lamb chops. Come on.
What gets better than that? So, I've done it with a grilled peach, and the mint really complements it. It lifts it up. There's quite a lot of fat in lamb. So with that mint, it just freshens it up.
And almost a little bit of a play on a Mexican salsa. At the bottom there is corn, red onion, and, mint that I've chopped up really finely into it. And actually, on top of that is a Cape Malay dusting of Cape Malay spice, and it just brings it all together in a beautiful, beautiful flavor. And then the third recipe that I've done for you, I'm just warning you, that pile of red chili on the side there, I was coughing like a crazy man just before I came in here. So I'm just warning you, be sparing with it.
But, again, heroing is South African ingredients with ostrich. It's ostrich cubes and apricots, fresh apricots. They behave so well in the braai. And so, again, just a dusting, a little bit of olive oil, and I said treat them like meat. So I put them with some thyme and rosemary last night, and then throw them on a really hot hot fry.
You don't want them to go pulpy and mushy.
Yeah. Just still be nice and crispy. And that's with, those, Ostruski babs. Yeah.
This is exploding paradigms here in terms of braaing for for a lot of us. You're saying it's been a secret recipe somewhere that you are looking to liberate.
I think it's not been a secret. I think we've all just been fearful of it.
I think that's what it is. Yeah. I think, we we know all the aunties that work with all the stone fruits, and we know how they normally make it into jams, etcetera. And I think what I'm seeing now is a lot of the hero, cuisine guys in South Africa restaurants are starting to take stone fruit and actually work with it on the braai. And I think, as I said, it's got to be it's confidence.
You don't want to it's like a fillet steak. You don't wanna slow cook a fillet steak. You're gonna have a piece of leather. Fruit behaves in the same way. So you wanna be bold.
Get it be bold. You can even have a bit mistakes? You can have some mistakes. You don't wanna blacken it, but you wanna char it and you wanna get it off quickly that it retains its its texture. It's seasonal though.
What do you do when it's out of season? Well, I think the South African grocers, are seasonal, yes, with stone fruit, but, there is definitely extended periods. But what's great is actually this goes over our summer period. So when we're outside with the sunshine and briars going on, it coincides with that. So I don't think we can complain.
When we're out there with we're wanting these grilled, fruits that's there. And I'm looking at it as well. And I'm looking at the the messages coming through. You eat with your eyes, and it certainly is appealing to the eyes. I have no doubt, the taste and the passage down, of course, is going to be commensurate with that site.
The dishes sound yummy, says, Ursula. When are you gonna make it? I'm gonna make it this weekend. I'm gonna make it this weekend. Lana says, absolutely love how descriptive chefs are when describing their dishes.
Also, I'm extremely hungry now after hearing that. You can't, as a chef, be half pregnant with your creations. You're all in, aren't you? Yeah. Definitely.
But I think that's my whole life. If anyone knows me, I'm an all in man. So when I cook, even when I was, like, coming to Yale, I was quite stressed about how's it gonna look. And I was I was like, wait. It's radio.
They can't see it. True. But I still I I love going all in, so I'm definitely not a half, half baked man. This is, where I'll always put my passion behind the dish. Okay.
So then just apart from stone fruits, you got herbs going over there, as well. You got you got spices. And again, is that what? Trial and error or or what? It's a long way to follow your recipe, I guess.
Yeah. If you follow the recipe that is online, obviously, you're gonna get it right. But I think the main thing with South African foods is we have such bold flavors and all the cultures are coming together. And I think that is a really special place in South Africa to be is if you're willing to experiment with flavors, herbs, and different stone fruits and meats, You've got a world of cuisine right on our doorstep here with amazing cultures to influence it. And I think we just need to be a little bit more brave.
I think if I look at it, people are cautious and what do we do? Boerewors, lamb chops, and steak on the on the braai.
Don't forget the the potatoes. Oh, don't forget the potatoes. And the bean salad.
And the and the garlic bread. I think the garlic bread is always there too. The paradigm paradigm now forever exploded. I think what us amateur braai people
We tend to basket, I guess. But what about heat? How do you do do you have a sense of heat and Yep. And what heat is good for what? Yeah.
Yeah. So I think some really good tricks I can tell you is that always make zones on the fire. I think what we often do is we South Africans, we love a rooster, you know, the clamp braai. And what we do is we create one section of heat and we put the rooster on and then that's the heat that the chicken, the steak, everything, the lamb, all of it is combined and we clamp it together and we got one heat. My suggestion is always try and get heat zones.
So what I do is I use a sekel, last long, scrape a few coals to one. So if you're looking for a slower and lower heat for, like, chicken, move that to one section of the braai. And then I normally have a a low, medium, and high, and that's how you do it with, like, a lamb chop, I do high. I like medium rare, as well as, ostrich steak. You don't wanna try it out.
So rare, so you want the hot. But then if I got a piece of chicken, I use the low. So secret, get different heat zones on the on on your braai. Okay.
Arrange the coals.
That's it. Scrape those coals into little areas and then use the hand trick. You know, I think put your hand over where the grid is. A low heat is five seconds. So count to five.
If you're burning your hand, on the low heat, it's it's, it's still too hot for low. Okay. And then obviously, don't stick your hand on the high heat. You're gonna burn it.
Tell us about this collaboration with Juicy Delicious. What is Juicy Delicious?
Juicy Delicious is representing the stone fruit industry, and they've got a beautiful website with loads and loads of, South African, cooks and authors who are creating recipes. And what's beautiful about it is that you're getting all different cultures, you're getting all different flavors, and many, many of our hero, South African, chefs. So you can go and get a different, take on South African stone fruit and how it's actually been used in, different cuisines in South Africa.
There's a wonderful quote. Walichia Fanevezdersen from Juicy Delicious says, there's nothing more South African and more unifying in our country than lighting up the fire Oh, yes. And gathering friends and family for a summer braai. We are so fortunate to also have access to farm fresh peaches, nectarines, plums. Throughout the summer months.
And, of course, they are also, they are so delicious in desserts from ice creams to crumbles and cobblers. But stone fruit also pairs wonderfully in savoury dishes from salads and roasted curries and braais. So before the summer ends, try out some of these braai recipes created by top South African chefs and braai masters, curated by Juicy Delicious for the first time. And, of course, our guest is master chef winner, Shawn Godfrey, aka the roasted dad, and he finds endless inspiration in the summer harvest of nectarines, peaches, and plums. Surely, we can pry in winter as well.
Of course, we can. You must see my house. I've got a big roof over aft ducky so that I can pry right through the winter. Nothing will stop me. And then yeah.
What what serves as a side in winter? So, normally, I actually go towards in the chuckles. Winter conversation. That's a winter conversation, but I take very similar dishes. I start using stone fruits or other potatoes and things like that and make it into bakes.
So in in summer, I use it fresh. I wanna hear it being fresh. And then going into the winters, normally, I convert to baked dishes, you know, the good old stuff that we, I suppose, more used to on the brine, what we're used to seeing there. Are there any kind of secret weapons that we should include in our brine arsenal? I think one of the things that we do not do is, season and or flavor our salads.
Mhmm. And I think we we don't like salads as Africans often. We like, fleserase and art topples. But what I why is I think we are not exploring good quality produce and flavoring it. We don't season.
We don't put, salt and black pepper on our salads. And also, I always try and make a dressing even if it is, somebody's in weight conscious and they wanna remove oils. There's so many ways that you can flavor salads and use it as a bright side and it's absolutely delicious if you go that way. Is there anything that you don't eat? Don't cook?
So I have a bit of a rule and this is even with my kids. Try everything and try it again and try it seven times. And if you don't like it seven times then stop. Mhmm. But there's actually nothing that I can think of that I don't like.
And, whenever I travel, one of the things is I always go into a country and I always respect their culture and I try everything. Even if I don't love it Try this one. I'll still give it a go. I've done tryp and trotters. I have done everything.
Okay. You've answered this question, but Keith asks it again. Which type of wood is not suitable for Bryce? May maybe he asks it differently. Yeah.
I I'm not a fan of blue gum. So blue gum burns very hot and powders. So it's a personal preference. I don't like all that powder going off, onto my meat. And also it's just it burns fast hot.
I think it's more good for a fireplace. Yeah. So you don't wanna take what they call it? They they call it, some some wood is good for the fireplace and some wood Correct. Yeah.
Yeah. I separate them out. Okay. And also flavor. So wood flavors your meats, and I think we don't often realize that.
So it's important. A sekel or kameeldoring really gives a beautiful flavour, real smoky flavour, whereas blue gum, I find, it it gives a bit of a bitter note.
MasterChef winner Shawn Godfrey, the roasted dad with us giving us some more ideas, and I have no doubt you're gonna be experimenting. But maybe you wanna go to the website and nail down the recipe, get it 100% right the first time around, and thereafter, start your own little journey of exploration. But what did MasterChef do for you as as a chef?
Was that the moment that you became a professional chef and your entrepreneurial juices maybe started flowing? Yeah. So I think the whole idea of MasterChef is obviously from home cook to chef. You know, that's the journey. It's a fast interjection in your life into becoming a chef.
And I think what it did for me is give me the confidence that, I didn't have. When I started the journey in in the Marsha kitchen, I was very nervous, anxious, not confident in my skills. And by the end of the show, obviously, you know, I won. So there was a affirmation of, hey. Well, I clearly must be able to cook.
And, actually, ever since then, I've I've just been working on the skills and refining them. But the the actual show really changes your life. And I mean that Sure. You know, down to the core of it. Changing my business' life, you know, I really love entrepreneurship.
Having to greet strangers every day. I'm sure. Yeah. This is good context and amazing, networking. And, I think other people will go down to the rugby and, have beer with their customers.
I cook for them. Cool. And, everyone, I think, everyone can identify with eating. Yeah. The reality of life is and I think cooking is that entire journey.
It starts with the idea with doing the shopping, with getting everything ready, eventually putting the stove on or lighting the fire. Yeah. And, of course, the result hopefully turning out to be exactly what you imagined it to be. These days, we don't have time for all of that Yeah. And this stuff.
We'd prefer to just go and get Shawn Godfrey’s all packets of spice. Yeah. And Just throw it on. It's just the nature of our lives. We're far too busy, for that entire process as often as we would would like it.
Is that maybe a future you would consider as well just to package all of this and Yeah. A %. Supermarket for us to make our lives easier? %. I'm a big dreamer.
So I'm always dreaming up and, thinking about what I wanna do in the future. And, I actually had some ideas of apparel even. I had leather aprons, but, my busy life took over, and, I wanted to focus on my lighting business and, the other The lighting business? Yeah. So I was gonna ask, you got a hundred employees Yeah.
And a factory? I hope they're listening and I think there will be a couple of them listening in. So, yeah, I've am the CEO and co owner of LED Lighting SA. It's a factory just around the corner, very proudly South African business with a hundred staff in it. Wow.
So what kind of lighting do you do?
We do commercial lighting, for all the retailers in South Africa. We also do train lighting for, the French company, Elstom Gebella. Mhmm. We do automotive lighting, and we also do food display lighting.
Whenever you open the when you're looking at the fruit, actually, my lights are lighting up the fruit in the cabinets.
And where are you at the cutting edge? Because there's a lot of opportunity in LEDs.
It's, we're growing. It's been an absolutely amazing path, and we're looking to export and go global at the moment. So we're actually wanting to go to The States and Australia. I don't know if Trump's gonna let me get into The States. I think that might be another conversation.
25% you need to add into the Exactly. I want you to change that tact. Okay. So that that was and and any of your own kind of IP involved in the LED space? Yes.
We do, especially rail. So it's a it's a long journey, ten years. And we're also just about to localize an audio system as well. So we're working with an Italian partner, and we're gonna be the first locally produced, speaker for commercial instances. So we're about two months away from that.
So we're very excited about that. The first local commercial speaker for? Yeah. For for b2b. So you're walking into a store.
So you walk straight into a store and you're listening to audio.
So, we've actually I can't name names, but we've landed already 13 brands in South Africa. And that audio system is gonna grow. In the next eight weeks, we'll be localizing and producing it all in South Africa. So you're walking into a a store and it's directing you to brands?
Yeah. Okay. That's fascinating. I I I have a funny feeling that you you're gonna want to buy your own product off off a retailer's shelf. Hopefully.
Hopefully in this in You're gonna be too busy to to create new stuff? Or does that is that an integral part of who you are?
I think as I develop and as I find my core passions, I don't do anything half measure as you mentioned earlier. So I think when I get to the point where I'm really confident in something that I could put on the retailer's shelves, I'll definitely go for it. I'd look for the right partner.
Mhmm. It's definitely been a consideration. I was actually won right after MasterChef. It was just a consideration that, obviously, I've got a big company, and I wanted to focus in on the MasterChef journey, and this is where I landed up. But it's definitely something in the future I'd absolutely love to do is get something on the shoulders of a of a retailer.
It's such a pleasure to chat with you, both as a creative, as an entrepreneur, and to see that you are vested in very many different spaces. Yeah. But you say it's never gonna be, the profit is never gonna be at the expense of the creativity, is it?
No. It's got to be done perfectly.
That's what how it has to be done. Absolutely. Thank you very much for your time. It's appreciated. And again, maybe you wanna go check out the website, theroasteddad.com.
Where else can we find your recipes?
Juicy Delicious as well. So go on there and you'll see my profile is there with all six recipes. Juicy delicious. And, again, really some wonderful, and the methods, described as well.
Lamb loin chops grilled with delicious mint and grilled peach salsa. So, yeah, go and have a look at that and plan that weekend in front of the fireplace, and, of course, your kids are going to be very chuffed with your effort.
Thank you very much for your time.
Huge pleasure. It's appreciated.
From Clarence Ford interviews MasterChef SA winner Shawn Godfrey on Cape Talk’s ‘Views & News’, 04 April 2025
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 (7), Olivia (5) and Harvey (3).
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