Lonnie’s winning breakfast

September 25, 2025 | The Victoria | 4 minute read

This month The Victoria ran a competition between the Kitchen Team to select a new item for the breakfast menu. Each chef produced a dish and they were sampled by a panel of judges and the winning dish was added to the breakfast menu. The winner was Lonnie who served a traditional North African dish – Shakshuka. Lonnie has been a chef at the Vic for 6 months and loves dishes which celebrate flavours the remind him of the time he spent traveling. We caught up with Lonnie who explained the process behind his winning dish.

1. Congratulations on winning the breakfast competition! Why did you choose to make shakshuka as your submission?

So, when I was in India traveling, me and my friends went to a Lebanese restaurant and there were a lot of dishes on the menu that I hadn’t really seen before including and that’s where I got my inspiration, but this version was like a sharing platter. So I just thought if we reduced that down to a smaller sized dish, that would be quite a nice, healthy option to add to the menu. 

2. Do you use any local ingredients in the dish?

Yes! The bell peppers were from the Walled Garden Garden just up the road at Holkham and the eggs are local too. 

3. Are there any different ingredients or techniques make your version of shakshuka?

I initially chose to use traditional ingredients and I practiced making it home several times. I had a little play about with the spices I used and then when I came to making it for the competition, it seemed to go down well!

4. In the feedback you got from the judging panel that stood out?

Nothing specific from the team judging it but the team in here tried it and told me ‘that’s nice’ and when I tried it myself alongside the other dishes, I thought, yeah, that’s pretty good. 

5. When you were coming up with the dish was there any problems you encountered?

The first thing that I struggled with was thinking which sized bowl to put it in. So, originally I had it in a longer shaped bowl with two eggs, but I decided that was a bit too big for one person, especially with the offer of starters as well. So I chose to reduce the portion size but add the flatbread and I feel like that works really well. 

6. Was there anything tricky about making it work for a busy breakfast rush?

Yeah, so we worked around that by making a big batch of it (the shakshuka) and then portioning it out as we go, so it’s ready just to be heated and topped.

7. If someone’s ordering your shakshuka, what drink would you recommend to go alongside it?

I would say maybe like a green or herbal tea, or even just a black tea or something like that I would recommend.

8. Looking ahead, what other dishes or flavours are you excited to experiment with for future menus?

One especially that I’m excited to have a play around with is sumac, which Michael (Head Chef at The Victoria) showed to me the other week and we tried that on some lamb. So I would like to maybe carry on with the North African, sort of Middle Eastern style, maybe even some Turkish dishes.