SVSI garners top spot in indigenous cooking

By Jethro Fangasan
The Saint Vincent's School (SVSI) participants were able to prevail over their competitors from the various

catholic schools of Mountain Province in the indigenous cooking competition in the 12th School of Living

Tradition (SLT) convention held at the SVSI grounds on Mar 12-16.

The vincentian participants were Francine Fesway, Kaycee Marok, Sherrin Sumcad, Dave Sawi, John

Chakiwag, and Raymond Macabeo. The indigenous cooking competition was on patupat making and the

vincentian representatives along with the other participants from Bauko Catholic School, Inc. (BCSI), Holy

Rosary High School, Inc. (HRHSI), Immaculate Heart High School Incorporated (IHHSI), and San Alfonso

High School Incorporated (SAHSI) were given two hours and twenty minutes to prepare their patupats.

Judges Jocelyn Apolinar, Luis Ray Lao-ed, and Mark Branford G. Andaya tasted the patupats a short while

after the time limit.

In an interview with Francine Fesway, the Vincentian who presented the dish to the judges, she stated,

"We were quite anxious about the outcome because we knew that we didn't abide by some of the guidelines

so we weren't expecting to win. That's why we were very happy with our win, because we also knew that

failing to perform well, would be embarrassing to those who supported us...", she also added that she and her

group were very nervous and pressured because of the mix of people who supported and doubted their

capabilities. In addition to that, she also added that certain elder spectators kept gossiping and telling them

what to do in their work area and how they were annoyed by this, where they decided to ignore them at the

end, she also remarked how this decision they made was the right one.