What it was like to cook live on the Expresso Show
Being on “Your Feel Good Morning Show” isn’t how it looks on TV…
Being a guest on Expresso gave me a whole new level of respect for the presenters (Ewan Strydom, Graeme Richards, Ryle Rene de Morny and Zoe Brown). Live TV is not easy. You have to be quick on your feet, and be able to multi-task.
But before the cook, Zoey Brown and Ewan Strydom first interviewed Lala Tuka, Head of Content at the SABC and I to talk about the new season coming up.
You can watch the excerpt below:
Up next, Ewan Strydom joined me in the Expresso kitchen, where we cooked Parmesan and Dukkah Angelfish with Sumac and Labneh Potatoes in an Everdure Kiln pizza oven (available through EI Online):
In the third segment, my six year old son Aiden joined me to make pizzas. Aiden is usually a real chatterbox, but he was totally stunned by the cameras and lights (and probably the realisation that he was on live TV) that he barely said a word! Regardless, I was so happy to have him there as I think it meant I could give the viewers a look into my ‘real life’ and make it true reality TV: at home I always involve the kids with cooking. It is also a great memory for years to come!
You can watch the segment in which Aiden and I make pizzas in the Everdure Kiln pizza oven below:
And it really was a family affair, because in the fourth segment my wife Lianne joined me too. Lianne doesn’t enjoy cooking at all, so when Ryle asked her whether the kids preferred Mom’s or Dad’s cooking, she had a quick answer: “They don’t get mom’s cooking!”
In this segment, I cooked Lamb Chops with Mango Atchar, Sweet Leeks and Chimichurri and it was quite nerve-racking when the blender didn’t switch on but it fortunately worked out in the end.
In the last segment, Ewan and Ryle trialled Google’s new feature Circle to Search, “a new way to search anything on your phone with a simple gesture — without switching apps”. We had quite a bit of fun with this and I could definitely see how this could be useful when trying to figure out what ingredients have been used in a dish.
You can watch the full Expresso Show from 28 February 2024 below, or just the three excerpts that I featured in, stitched together in the first block:
The recipes are available on the Expresso website and on my Recipes page:
Parmesan and Dukkah Angelfish with Sumac and Labneh Potato Recipe
Lamb Chops with Mango Atchar, Sweet Leeks and Chimichurri Recipe
Stone-Ground Pizza with Blistered Tomatoes, Parma Ham, Basil and Mozzarella Recipe
In June, I went back on the Expresso Show a second time, and I wrote all about this experience in the blog post Using a Gas Braai on the Expresso Show. The recipes cooked on this episode are also available on the Expresso website and on my Recipes page:
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 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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