Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Mumbai’s First Lady of Food

Bacon from Sri Lanka; Hass avocados from New Zealand; noodles from Japan; six brands of olive oils from Spain, Italy and Greece; Cranberries from America; ready-made pasta, pesto sauces and chutneys; mead wines, craft cider wines, seltzer wines; re-imagined Indian delicacies like kaju katli in wafer thin rolls; filter coffee decoctions; live demonstrations in Thai cooking; an array of millets; a cornucopia of coffee machines; a collection of cast iron cookware from Kerala…Farzana Contractor, editor and publisher of Upper Crust, India’s only food, wine and travel magazine, and the lady behind the recently-concluded Upper Crust Show, is justifiably chuffed with the success of its latest edition - the 20th - of her annual movable feast, something of a red letter day for city foodies

Bacon from Sri Lanka; Hass avocados from New Zealand; noodles from Japan; six brands of olive oils from Spain, Italy and Greece; Cranberries from America; ready-made pasta, pesto sauces and chutneys; mead wines, craft cider wines, seltzer wines; re-imagined Indian delicacies like kaju katli in wafer thin rolls; filter coffee decoctions; live demonstrations in Thai cooking; an array of millets; a cornucopia of coffee machines; a collection of cast iron cookware from Kerala…

Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Mumbai’s First Lady of Food

Farzana Contractor, editor and publisher of Upper Crust, India’s only food, wine and travel magazine, and the lady behind the recently-concluded Upper Crust Show, is justifiably chuffed with the success of its latest edition - the 20th - of her annual movable feast, something of a red letter day for city foodies.

“The variety of foods available is staggering. It’s not just about thousands of gourmet products under one roof, but the fact that you can see, look, taste and then buy,” she says of the fiesta spread over 25,000 square feet of the World Trade Center and its outdoor Food Court, featuring chaats, ‘vintage’ Parsi mutton sandwiches and a live band among other attractions.

“At the first year of its launch, our chief guest Mukesh Ambani had said “The food world is set to grow and the UpperCrust Show is a great platform for food entrepreneurs”.” Contractor has not just sustained the success of her enterprise, but been a harbinger of change and innovation.

“We started with getting together hundreds of national and international brands. Market leaders in the food industry gave us their whole-hearted support and we in turn supported new entrants in the field. Everyone’s businesses grew,” she says, as she walks me through the grounds, cradling her beloved 14-year-old Shih-tzu, Tasha in her arms.

“Our exhibitors include Indian food manufacturers, importers of global foods, distributors, young food entrepreneurs, creators of innovative food concepts, vintners, brand custodians of kitchen equipment and tableware etc. Not surprising, over a thousand food and wine brands literally empower the senses of over a lakh visitors each year.”

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In many senses, Contractor is Mumbai’s first lady of food. As wife of the late Behram (Busybee) Contractor, one of the earliest and finest writers on food in the city (his ‘Eating out with Busybee’ column ran for over 6 decades and introduced generations to the delights of prawn pulao in Kalbadevi and mutton biryani at Mohammad Ali Road) she had launched Upper Crust on the urging of her husband, in January 2000.

“He’d shot down my idea of publishing a sports magazine and said instead to work on a food mag. ‘Indian food will become very big on the world scene’, he had prophesied,” she says, with palpable pride. The glossy, 100% made-in-India magazine, with its quality photographs and production values, a precursor to the international titles that followed, had traveled the length and breadth of India, celebrating food in all its glory, quickly carving a place for itself in the hearts, minds and palates of foodies.

A few years later Contractor embarked upon the idea of doing a food and wine exhibition. “We felt it was time to bring the world to India, make international ingredients available locally. Offer visitors not just an opportunity to buy foodstuff that they had until then, lugged back in their suitcases from abroad, but also teach them how to cook with those ingredients.”

The show opened with free cookery demonstrations, by the likes of Nelson Wang and Chef Imtiaz Qureshi among others.

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But of course, much has changed since those halcyon days. With the relaxing of import regulations and the ease of international travel, Indians have had unprecedented exposure to the world’s melting pot. Today every one is a ‘foodie’ or purports to be one. Chefs have become superstars, restaurateurs are the leading lights of society and new generations of gourmets and gourmands are always at the ready, to sample the latest dish, the newest trend, the most recent fad, as they swirl, nose and glug a glass of mandatory Bordeaux.

“They’ve changed like crazy!” agrees Contractor. “As the years progressed, Indian food first went into the background and then came back in a big way, with everyone talking about ‘regional Indian foods.’ While Chinese continues to be the number 1 cuisine, Japanese food has found many takers. But all through all this, the most noticeable change is eating out, which has become a form of entertainment. Also, bars are thriving and drinking has gotten bigger. Last year, mock meat was the big thing, this year the buzz words are millets and coffee and finger foods. “

And what would Behram have made of this pretension, posturing and posting of every meal sampled? “Behram was a very progressive kind of a guy; he would go with the flow. He wouldn’t judge that many people ‘shoot’ their food first and then eat it; he would be amused by it. He would also appreciate all the fancy food - Peruvian, Levantine - available at fancy places at fancy prices. But when it came to himself, he would quietly withdraw and go eat a good, spicy, Goan prawn curry rice, at a modest place (unfortunately, Sacru’s at Ballard Estate, his favorite, has closed down) or a mutton dhansak at Ideal Café.” she says.