“Cooking is a science,” says Victoria Malagotnot. “Why? Because every ingredient and measurement has a specific role that a chef must be continually aware of. It is also ten times talent.” Malagotnot continues.

With this, the Vice-Mayor’s secretary opens April 4’s event, “Bayambang Master Chef Year 2,” held in the St. Vincent’s Catholic School auditorium.

Patterned after the hit TV show of the same title, the contest aims to discover new local culinary talents while promoting what Bayambang is long known for: malangsi or freshwater fish and malangsi dishes.

Ten contestants vied for the coveted title and, after patient waiting, three chefs emerged on top, with only a tiny difference in their scores. And the grand prize winner is Ulyses Urlanda, who is a proprietor of an eatery in front of the Santo Niño Hospital.

His winning dish? Hito Fillet with Buro Sauce expertly styled to tempt the queasy eater, and guaranteed to win converts even among hard-core non-fans of anything malangsi, to say nothing of the extremely funky buro that goes with it as dip. Urlanda’s secret lies in magically removing the tremendous fishiness of catfish and pureeing the accompanying buro using a blender then adding some mayonnaise to offset the saltiness. The visual result is a minimalist ring of medallions that are nonetheless mouth-watering.

Hito Fillet with Buro Sauce gets the approval of the two discriminating judges — retired English professor and veteran newspaper columnist Dr. Leticia B. Ursua and Municipal Nutritionist Venus M. Bueno — because it is certainly original, creative, nutritious and most of all, tasty — the tilt’s set of criteria.

For his on-the-spot effort, Master Chef Urlanda goes home with P10,000 cash in hand and the biggest smile.

Alan Paolo Medrano’s Hito in Creamy Salted Egg with Pomelo-Buro Salad as siding comes in as close second, and its novelty factor and visual appeal are just as high that one is lured to come back for seconds, and thirds. The third winner is a high school senior student at PSU, Lila Nicole Mendez, who comes up with the architectural wonder, Tilapia Fish Cakes, which are basically fish burgers artfully assembled and interestingly concocted that you are left second-guessing what ingredients she has put in it.

The rest of the entries, though they don’t make it, are worth mentioning. The most popular among the audience is Belinda Fajardo’s Fish-Tim, which is a lip-smacking pork-free patatim that wonderfully works well. Other novel inventions are Bernardo Sudayon’s Tilapia Camarone, Russell Mabanglo’s Fish in Coco Ginger Sauce, and Jerome Trinidad’s Creamy Sopas with Dalag Fishball. Two contenders choose to stick to the traditional: Edmar Junio and his Sigang na Dalag and Marissa Bautista and her Calderetang Dalag, which to be fair looks slick and luscious.

This year’s Hermano Mayor Levin Uy gets up the stage and reminds everyone that once upon a time, Bayambang has the biggest inland fisheries in Pangasinan, thanks to the endless bounty of Mangabul Lake, which was unfortunately buried under lahar by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption of 1991. “We used to leave all our excess catch by the roadside then,” Uy fondly recalls with a tinge of sadness.

“Layunin natin na maibalik ang ating No. 1 position through our ongoing Langiran Lake project. We are also exploring the potential of the bodies of water in Maigpa and Tanolong and the remaining creeks in Mangabul,” he explains.

Uy then expresses a wish: “Sana makabuo tayo ng isang cookbook featuring all these dishes today.”

Bayambang Master Chef 2018’s organizer Gloria de Vera-Valenzuela takes up Uy’s challenge and promises to come back for another exciting round next year.

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