Palaro champ dreams to be top chef too

DAPITAN CITY ,Philippines  – After capping her Palarong Pambansa stint with two gold medals and one bronze, Western Visayas’ Nikki Therese Servando looks forward to chasing her two dreams – on the badminton court and inside the kitchen.

From the Palaro, the Bacolod-based winner of the secondary girls singles and mixed doubles titles (with Robert Aloyan) and team event bronze will relocate to Manila to take up Culinary Arts at St. Benilde, mixing up the racket game with schooling the way she’d blend ingredients to a gratifying cuisine.

“It’s been my childhood dream to become a culinary and pasty chef,” said Servando, who first reached the medal podium of the annual student sportsfest as an elementary campaigner, topping the girls doubles in 2005.

Of course, it goes without saying that the young lass from the City of Smiles, owner of a good number of local, national and international titles, will still be wielding her racquet in badminton tournaments.

“Definitely, I’ll still compete in tournaments if schedule permits and join CSB’s team in the NCAA (where CSB dominated the recent badminton tournaments) under coach Lloyd Escoses as well as the UniGames (University Games),” she said.

But first, she had to take her first step toward being a chef and attend school beginning May 23, opting to skip two major tourneys in her hometown, the Philippine National Games (PNG) on May 22-29, and the second leg of the Philippine Badminton Ranking System (PBaRs) on May 29-June 4.

“One has to make sacrifices (to reach his dreams),” she said.