Baguio prepares for third serving of giant tossed salad

BAGUIO CITY — On Sept. 27, this city is offering the "third serving" of its record-breaking tossed salad. This time though, it’s aiming to top last year’s feat by feeding more people with the fresh veggies.

The city’s Tossed Salad Festival has become a much-awaited tourist spectacle in this mountain abode.

In 2001, the giant tossed salad fed more than 5,000 people who crammed the Baguio Convention Center. The Guinness attempt, however, went pfft because no representative from the Guinness Book of World Records was around to validate the feat.

Jeannie Chan, president of the Baguio Association of Hotels and Inns (BAHAI), the event’s main sponsor, lamented that they lacked funds to shoulder the plane fare and accommodations of Guinness representatives.

In their second serving last year, the event organizers surpassed the 2001 record by feeding 10,000 people.

According to the organizers, this year’s festival will be another record-breaking attempt with the involvement of more stakeholders in the vegetable industry of Baguio and Benguet.

The week-long spectacle will include a Vegetable Parade on Sept. 20, a suppliers’ exposition, sports and arts competitions and a rootcrop sculpting contest.

In the Vegetable Parade, carts laden with fresh highland vegetables will parade down Session Road to Magsaysay Avenue to kick off the festival.

The two-day suppliers’ exposition at the Baguio Convention Center will showcase the best products and services of Baguio and Benguet.

A "culinary convergence" will also be held at the convention center on Sept. 25. Bartenders, chefs and table dressers will be pitted against each other in their respective fields. Judging will be based on skill, palatability, presentation, economy and technique.

A day before the "Baguio Tossed Salad Festival: Round Three," hotel and restaurant management students from various schools and vocational institutions will compete in a rootcrop sculpting competition, also at the Baguio Convention Center.