Thursday night’s grand finale of MasterChef SA season four on M-Net was everything you’d expect it to be, with such great cooking from the last two contestants that the judges didn’t have the easiest time picking the winner. It was Shawn Godfrey’s pork main course and malva pudding dessert that edged out Andriëtte de la Harpe’s brave vegetarian choice of a butternut main dish, and custard cake.

De La Harpe had previously cooked off against fellow Capetonian Tarryn de Kock for her place in the final against Godfrey. We have to note, of course, that all three finalists are Cape Town-based, a fact of which we here in the Mother City can be justifiably proud. Not only that, but what a joy to watch them all grow, in confidence and skills, as the programme progressed.

The result of the competition is less than 24 hours old, but Godfrey and everyone else involved in the production have known the outcome since the end of November 2021, when the series filmed at Makers Landing at the V&A Waterfront wrapped. This week, when interviews with Godfrey were permitted, being congratulated now is almost strange after having to keep it under wraps for nearly four months. It’s a long time to maintain a poker face and field questions from everyone you encounter. He’s also had time to process the win – the cash prize as well as all the spin-off opportunities. 

Shawn Godfrey’s reaction when he heard he was the winner of MasterChef SA. (Photo: Supplied)

I’m not that excited yet because I’ve had to numb that side of me since November,” said Godfrey in our interview this week. “It was already a bit of a whirlwind. We’re managing. I’ve got a very very strong wife,” said Godfrey.  

“Every second person I meet asks ‘did you win?’ and they wait to see your reaction. I was very excited on that night it happened. Those last three days where a total adrenaline rush,” he said.

It was the penultimate episode, however, that was Godfrey’s favourite. He’d previously won an immunity challenge in the canapés episode which guaranteed him a place in the final. He loved the challenge, and his heart was fully in it, but the breathing space at a time of exhaustion was most welcome. On Wednesday, the Seven Colours challenge was the highlight of the series for Godfrey, with a further immunity putting him in a 50/50 position of winning; it was also the “bring the family to set day”, always an enormously emotional time for the contestants who haven’t seen their loved ones for several weeks.

“The reason why it was so special is that Lianne was heavily pregnant at the time and I hadn’t seen her or the children for five weeks, and she kept it a total secret,” said Godfrey. The couple’s third child, Harvey, was born in February, joining siblings Aiden, 4, and Olivia (Liv), 2. 

“It wrecked me. I’d been pushing mentally hard, going balls to the wall, and suddenly – she’d known for nearly a week – in they come,” said Godfrey. Clearly this family knows how to keep secrets. “It threw me and I was quite terrified! I’m such a competition game face person, so I was thinking ‘no, I can’t be emotional!’. It kicked me up another gear and gave me so much energy. I went into risk and reward mode, and took so many risks. If I was to go out in this challenge, fine. To be honest, if there was a peak, that was it.”

Shawn Godfrey’s pork tenderloin and quail eggs with crackling crumb, smoked apple purée, bacon, charred leek and crème fraîche sauce. (Photo: Supplied)

Those risks paid off, in the short and long term. “The whole MasterChef thing is 50% mental strength and 50% cooking skills, ability and technique. And if you don’t have the mental ability to keep improving on your 50% skill you’re out. I genuinely think that boost kicked my backside for that last stretch to cross the finish line. I was also able to step out of one challenge and that was a huge game changer.”

Godfrey is a self-described go-getter. In addition to his new MasterChef title, he has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and runs four companies. The most recent addition to his portfolio of lighting, software and an engineering call centre is The Roasted Dad, which has multiple legs, said Godfrey. 

“It’s travel and food blogging, we want to do a TV series, we want to do a book, and we’re starting a pop-up restaurant on April 27. It’s focused on food and media influencing, and working with brands.” There’s also merchandise in an online store with a range of leather food-related products like aprons and gloves, for adults and children, and tableware.

The Seven Colours challenge dish. (Photo: Supplied)

Godfrey’s immediate future holds a position of brand ambassador for a major food retailer, which he declined to name, but I think we can hazard a good guess. He’ll be doing cooking demonstrations, leaflets, tips on how to shop for ingredients around which he’ll build recipes, which will tie in with his own brand which is health focused and family orientated. “It all revolves around family. My kids are part of my journey, my wife is part of my journey, there is no separation,” he said. “The children cook with me all the time, and they eat everything. People are blown away. I did an eight-course fine dining experience at my house for clients last week and they ate with us and were part of the experience. Sometimes Aiden will shout ‘it’s too spicy Daddy!’. They ate what we ate from the beginning.”

Because Godfrey intertwines family, work and cooking, he manages to keep all the parts moving harmoniously without any aspect being neglected. That said, realistically, he doesn’t have the time to open his own full time restaurant, which is what some would expect from a MasterChef winner. That hasn’t stopped him; partnering with Callan Austin, Darren Badenhorst and Tom Pryor of Storyboard Events, he has joined The Chefs’ Collective. “The intent is to break down how a normal restaurant would work, where you’d be lucky if you meet the head chef,” Godfrey explained. “So we’ll have me who won MasterChef; Callan who was on the show and is an exceptionally talented chef; and Darren, who is right at the top, owning multiple restaurants. We are splitting 10 courses into three and you will experience us cooking with you sitting around us, talking and telling stories.”

Shawn Godfrey’s dessert was malva pudding with speculaas branches and lime zest. (Photo: Supplied)

These intimate experiences will seat only 24 guests. The first of several planned is from April 27, 2022, for four nights, at Makers Landing. 

Like most food fans. Godfrey has had a staple diet of television cooking programmes, including MasterChef Australia. It may not be fair but it’s inevitable that we compare our version to it. Produced by Homebrew Films, it was not found wanting, by viewers or contestants. “The production budgets, the quality of filming… everything felt like a movie and you can see it when you watch it. The budgets definitely showed,” said Godfrey.

For her dessert, Andriëtte de la Harpe made custard cake with lemon curd and meringue shards, peppermint cream, fennel flowers and raspberries. (Photo: Supplied)

That they did, in the ingredients, the gadgets (one of everything for every contestant, just in case they all decide to use an espuma gun on the same day), and a veritable who’s who of SA culinary giants from Kobus van der Merwe to Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen, to Bertus Basson and up and coming star Mmabatho Molefe.

The quality was exceptional, said Godfrey. “All the people I’ve met and subsequently become very close to like Errieda (du Toit) and Hannerie (Visser) and Herman (Lensing) are some of the most key food influencing individuals in South Africa. It pulled together the storyline of true South African heroes of the food scene. 

“We have a unique and different flavour. We are a melting pot. I’m so excited to be linked with, and having won, something that I can genuinely feel everyone is proud of. I’ve been very ambitious and taken a company through Covid, and taking over from my mentor who passed away, have been defining moments in my life. And now MasterChef. It’s everything I aspired to – it was ridiculously hard and I threw everything at it. It’s a combination of all my personality on a plate.”

Andriëtte de la Harpe’s decision to make a vegetarian dish was a bold move – butternut steak with asparagus, red pepper sauce, ricotta and smoked chimichurri. (Photo: Supplied)

Looking back to when the competition began, Godfrey was “very Asian/French-centric”. His world of food was all about studying French and Asian techniques and recipes and trying them out. “To be honest, I was a bit embarrassed when I got there because you had these amazing food heroes who were conducting the episodes and how they were positioned in the South African market,” he said. “It was almost a blocking point for me because I was using ingredients, thinking ‘like what IS that?’. I’m such a South African advocate – I’ve got all my businesses here, I’m an entrepreneur in South Africa, my heart is here. I ain’t going anywhere! So with something I’m so passionate about I actually felt weaker.”

Godfrey applied himself, took notes, looked things up, and learned. “Now I’ve decided I’m divorcing myself from world-centric ingredients,” he laughed. “Because we have such amazing ingredients and local heritage and history, so I’m starting to work with techniques from overseas but bringing it local, weaving it into everything I’m doing right now. It’s renewed my love for food again, and I’m quite excited about it.” DM/TGIFood

Click here for more about The Roasted Dad and follow Shawn Godfrey @theroasteddad on Instagram.

To book tickets for The Chefs’ Collective at Makers Landing click here.

Follow Bianca Coleman on Instagram @biancaleecoleman 

The writer supports Ladles Of Love, which in six years, has grown from serving 70 meals at its first soup kitchen, to one of the most prolific food charity organisations in South Africa.