A Toast to Super Success: The 22nd UpperCrust Show
The UpperCrust Team put their best foot forward to bring out yet another successful food and wine show, with 100 exhibitors, over a lakh of visitors and food, wine and kitchen equipment galore. 22 years and going strong!
The calendars - the most handy UpperCrust strip calendars - were marked with the first weekend of December for the biggest food and wine exhibition in the country, where the foodies of Bombay set foot to the World Trade Center in Cuffe Parade, to shop, taste, eat and learn more about cooking, to their heart's content. That's the UpperCrust Food & Wine Show, an institution in itself, entrenched in the lives of food lovers. For it is more than just a food event, it is a place for food lovers to connect, unwind, explore... a place for entrepreneurs to get a foothold in the industry and established brands to earn more footfalls... a place for chefs to showcase their talents for budding cooks to learn from.
Launches & Inauguration
This year also had authors and winemakers launch their creative ideas before an eager audience, ready for a taste of the good word and the good drop!
- Book Launch: Food writer and consultant, Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal, unveiled her heavy tome celebrating India's diverse condiment culture - 230 chutney recipes, with a story behind each one, comprise Chutney.
- Wine Launch: Winemaker from Nashik, Babasaheb Kank, along with his son, Nitin, was over the moon launching his wine Jam-Bhula at the Show, with a little taste for everyone present, especially the chief guest!
Life is all about trying a bit of this and that, keeping the mystery going, bringing in the spice! Which is just what Chief Guest, Dr Swati Piramal, was engaged in, post inaugurating the Show with Curator, Farzana Contractor, lighting the lamp and cutting the ceremonial ribbon at the Expo Center on the first floor of the Arcade at WTC.
This is where the fun takes place, where visitors can shop from over 10,000 food, wine and kitchen products, sample, take home bags full of the good stuff, unwind at the Food Court and learn a recipe or two from the city's top chefs and home chefs. Swati sure was floored at the enormity of the exhibition and the range of products, as she browsed through the myriad of stalls, sampling a bit of this and that and making a mental checklist of what she can shop for at ease, when not in chief guest mode.
Likewise, several of the city's who's who, the high-profiled, the glitterati and the literati, well-wishers and regulars at the Show—all genuine foodies—put on their walking shoes post the inauguration and shopped away. It was a pleasant sight to see so many come equipped with empty shopping bags from home sturdy enough to carry the weight of all the goodies to be purchased—some even with UpperCrust bags, which they swear by!
The Expo Center played host to a variety of F&B stalls, big names in the industry with Amul being the main sponsor as usual and HomeFnB (a platform connecting food lovers with home chefs for authentic, home-cooked meals and dining experiences) as the associate sponsor alongside newcomers, with kitchen equipment and homeware exhibitors to complete the picture.
The Food Court
Once done shopping, the Food Court at the end of the exhibition was yours for the partaking, to kick up your feet and relax with friends and family, while some soft music fills the air. It was made up of delectable brands such as:
- Jafferbhai's Delhi Darbar
- Gokul Bites
- Bombay Brasserie
- Desita Coffee
- Kutumb Sakhi – with their mouthwatering puranpolis, and more
- Happy Monk Dim Sums
- Bhutu's Kitchen – for authentic Bengali cuisine
- Fire Wings
- Nura Sangria
- Moira's – for the sweet-toothed
- Northwala
- Waah Sindhi – for hearty, wholesome fare
- Balaji Foods – for ice golas, popcorn and those fun and filling potato twisters
Shopping Highlights & Exhibitors
Shopping had visitors spoilt for choice, with an array inclusive of:
- Seafood & Meats: Gadre Seafood, Amar Seafood
- Sauces & Condiments: Veeba Sauces, Poonjiaji's range of masalas and powders, Homepick's Pickles, Only Spices
- Chocolates & Sweets: Jindal Cocoa's Cocoburst (in its signature Christmas décor stall), Nosh Gourmet Foods
- Beverages: Society Tea, London Dairy Ice Cream, Urban Platter for the gourmet stuff
- Dairy & Cheese: Cremeitalia's premium Italian dairy, Switz International, Millie's Artisanal Cheese, The Spotted Cow Fromagerie
- Nuts & Snacks: Turkish Hazelnuts, Australian Macadamias, Nutty Gritties, Super Munchies' vacuum-cooked, all-natural fruit and vegetable chips
- International & Organics: Moi Soi for all things Oriental, Koka Noodles, Svaasthya Organics, Wild Harvest Mahua
New Entries
New entries saw brands refreshing the busy shopper, such as:
- ✓ Better Flour (wheat pastas)
- ✓ Talod Foods
- ✓ Geenis (oven-baked chips)
- ✓ Happy Monk (frozen Dim Sums)
- ✓ Plantacious (vegan butter)
- ✓ Space Age Foods (crafted flavoured hummus)
- ✓ Ito En Green Tea
- ✓ July Coffee
- ✓ Kamlesh Khichdiwala's
- ✓ Zapz's (fruit and veggie chips)
- ✓ Zessa's (Vegan Cream Cheese)
- ✓ Papa Patel's (Hot Sauces)
- ✓ Exotic Treats' (Solkadhi)
The Wine Alley
The wine alley, as always with the most "buzzing" stalls at the Show, showcased a range of wines and alcoholic beverages. The trick is to sip a bit of everything, avoid getting tipsy, and have all the fun you want, for there's lots more shopping in store.
- Brands: Sula, Frizzano, L74 Ciders, Grover Zampa, fruit wines by Alurra Wines and Rhythm Winery, and a host of brands under Saphalya's World.
Kitchen & Homeware
Brands that cater to the artistic senses more, with names such as:
- Turkish Ceramics, GetKitch.in, WonderChef
Cookery Demos & Masterclasses
While taste, shop, eat is very well the premise of the UpperCrust Show, it would not be the success it is today without its highlight, the Cookery Demos by top chefs and home chefs, open to all.
Masterclasses Line-up
- Tribal Cuisine: Pop-Up Chef Harshita Kakwani
- Macadamia Magic: Chef Jerson Fernandes representing Australian Macadamias
- European Cuisine: Chef Monika Tiwari of The Oberoi Mumbai
- Sangria Cocktails: Nupur Joshi of Nura Sangria
- World Cuisine: Chef Aditya Kulkarni of Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai
- Pan-Asian: Chef Gaurvi Verma of Trident Nariman Point
- Pastry Delights: Chef Vinayak Dalvi of ITC Maratha
- Hazelnut Chocolate Tart: Chef Nimit Somaya of the School for European Pastry and Culinary Arts (served with Turkish Hazelnuts)
The Home Chef Studio
Last but certainly not least are the Home Chef Cookery Classes which hold a special place at the Show, for cooking begins where else but at home!
The Home Chef Studio—as always, sponsored by Switz International—was started by UpperCrust as a platform for home chefs to showcase their regional cuisines. Today, it has blossomed into a network of chefs who are confidently conducting pop-ups across the country, and some even the world over.
This year's featured regional cuisines included:
- Bihari: Rachna Prasad
- Punjabi: Inderpreet Nagpal
- Parsi: Daugdo Ragina
- Mangalorean: Tejal Suvarna
And with that, it's a wrap! Adios till the next UpperCrust Food & Wine Show, on Dec 4, 5, 6, 2026, foodies!
