Two Score, What a Hit!

The 20th year of the ever popular UpperCrust Food & Wine Show unfurled over three days of tons of food, drink and fun. Visitors will remember this celebration for another 20 years as the Show keeps growing, and getting bigger and better and tastier

The 18th UpperCrust Show goes down in history as the best one yet, proclaimed so, by the vast number of visitors and exhibitors alike. Memorable, since we took the challenge to beat the pandemic odds and emerge successful. Creatively, we also launched Home Chef Studio, celebrating cooks who rose to the occasion helping diners along during the gloomy times

Text: Lyle Michael, Photographs: Team UpperCrust

Text: Lyle Michael
Photographs: Team UpperCrust

The first weekend of December – 1, 2 & 3 – saw food lovers from across the city and outside flock to the World Trade Center for three days of fun! Food tasting and shopping, cookery demos and competitions, mentoring sessions, wine and liquor sipping and buying, live music and dancing, and a vast array of food stalls to patronise…The UpperCrust Food & Wine Show was the perfect event to begin the festive season ahead. Hosted and curated by Farzana Contractor, the editor of UpperCrust, the Show welcomes anyone and everyone in the food world, from gourmands to gourmets, consumers to exhibitors, young entrepreneurs and professionals alike; as also keen and excited students from dozens of catering and hospitality schools and colleges.

Film producer and director, Sajid Nadiadwala, is one such foodie personality who is reticent but vocal about his love for food and pets and hence was the apt choice for chief guest. Along with his pretty and intelligent wife, Warda, and Farzana Contractor, the inaugural lamp was lit on the WTC Lawns in front of the who’s who of Bombay society and the ribbon cut at the Expo Centre housing over 100 exhibitors in premium quality food, wine and kitchen equipment. Sajid came away terribly impressed with the scale of the event and was pleased with his decision to take up Farzana’s offer to grace the Show as the chief guest; the very man who does not go out much for parties and social events! Once the festivities were underway, guests were treated to tea, coffee and cookies courtesy Society Tea.

To commemorate the 20th year, a life-size sculpture of Mr Food, the jolly mascot of the Show was unveiled and photos and selfies were clicked. The person behind the sculpture was Sharvari Luth, the very well-known and talented architect and artist who worked with precision to get the contours of the chubby man with the fork and spoon as exact as can be.

From the lawns to the Expo Centre, the panoply for food lovers further impressed. Exhibitors are always positive about the response they get from the 100000 footfall that the Show gathers over three days and this 20th year was greater. Big food brands from Japan, Thailand and Sri Lanka premiered at the exhibition, presenting top quality products like noodles from Ishimaru Sanuki and bacon from Cargills. The famed Blue Elephant restaurant by Chef Nooror Somany had also brought in their products for visitors to get a taste of and purchase.

Amul returned as the principal sponsor for the Show and Switz, RedFM, Mid-Day, Indian Oil, Blue Elephant, FBCI and ITC e-store as Associate Sponsors. Regular exhibitors included Jindal Cocoa, Granules & Beans, Gadre, Kikkoman, Urban Platter, Fun Foods, Veeba, Chenab Gourmet, Gurme, Koka Noodles, Bringi Premium Natural Spring Water, Super Munchies and many more. New brands that were quite the rage included Chilzo - offering readymade pasta and pesto sauces, Chutnefy – with various ready –to-mix chutneys, Tit Bit – of varied masalas and soup powders. One-of-a-kind brands like Mish had visitors tasting Indian sweets like kaju katli in a spread form, adorned with Malvan cashews and California almonds. A French-Indo modern fragrance brand named River Apothecary had one of the most attractive Christmassy stalls displaying naturally-made candles and home fragrances.

Brands selling high quality truffle oils and truffle products and olives and olive oils from Spain, Italy and Greece were at the customer’s disposal. The world’s most sought-after Hass avocados from New Zealand and cranberries from US Cranberries were available. Millet brands were much in order with – Super Millets, Holy Millets, Svasthyaa, NutriOrg and Sparkit among the milieu and plant-based brands like Plantaway and Greenest were a part of the Show, along with a first-time tempeh brand called Hello Tempayy. Coffee brands like Desita, Rasulpur (GI tagged coffee), Unnwind – filter coffee decoctions – and Something’s Brewing were on offer. Coffee aficionados could also look at making their own brews at home with equipment bigwigs like Gaggia, La Pavoni, De Longhi, Saeco, Nemox, Budan, Solis, Fellow, Wacaco, Timemore and Keepcup.

In keeping with its promise of being a premium platform for young entrepreneurs in the food and drink business, the Entrepreneur Junction was set up with brands Sparkit Millets and Holy Millet, Mezmo Candy, Nei Native A2 Ghee and Olmec Almond Brittle. Post browsing the food alleys, visitors look forward to the wine alley which names such as Fratelli, Resvera, Vinland, Good Drop and new entrants inclusive of a mead brand, Cerana, a craft cider brand, L74 and a seltzer brand, Primer. It’s the perfect weekend activity, we say.

Food and drink shopping done, visitors were spoilt for choice at the Food Court where there were also serenaded by classical and Sufi singer, Indira Naik and the foot-tapping tunes of 2 GIrlz & a Guitar. Day 3 had the perfect finale in the family band where almost everyone was on the lawns shaking and grooving the night away. Non-dancers were content kicking their feet up and chilling with a glass of wine/mead/cider from brands like Rhythm Winery and Grover Zampa or a cup of ice-cream from Bachelorr’s. Food stalls were aplenty, from regulars like Jafferbhai’s Delhi Darbar to Soam and Parsi da Dhaba to newer ones like Bay of Bengal, New York Burrito Company and B Burger.

And of course, no UpperCrust Show is complete without the much-awaited masterclasses where top chefs and F&B professionals demonstrate a specialized cuisine, with recipes and tasting portions for the audience present. Food lovers and home cooks and young enthusiasts were more than content sitting through all the demos on Dec 1 and Dec 3, from noon to evening, learning about a variety of cuisines and tasting straight from the chef’s hands. And it’s a beautiful sight to see when dusk begins to set in on the vast lawns of WTC and the colours of the night blend with the red and white awnings of the UpperCrust Show.

This 20th year’s masterclasses saw Chef Prakash of ITC Grand Central present South Indian cuisine, Chef Nooror Somany of Blue Elephant present Thai cuisine, Vivek Vishwanathan of Something’s Brewing present interesting coffee recipes with Monin syrups, Chef Mayukh Mazumdar of The Oberoi Mumbai and Trident Nariman Point, Mumbai, present desserts, Chef Rohit Sangwan of Taj Lands End showcase Italian cuisine, Meghna Kamdar, celebrity chef, showcase fun recipes with US Cranberries, and Radhika Batra, leading tea sommelier, of Radhika’s Fine Teas showcase organic tea brewing. Every ‘master’ was presented with a customized apron and a mug as a token of appreciation by UpperCrust. We’ve shared exclusive recipes from these demos with you, dear UpperCruster, at the back of the issue so you can try your hand at these, in the comfort of your home kitchen.

Day 2 of the Show was yet again host to the Home Chef Studio, brought to you by UpperCrust in association with FinelyChopped. We’ve got special coverage on this competition in the pages that follow. As always, the UpperCrust Show has a lot to offer and packs in a punch. And we’re already gearing up for the 21st one, on Dec 6, 7, 8. Mark your UpperCrust strip calendars right away, those long and handy gadgets that have their own fan following!