UpperCrust food and wine show, Bangalore 2010 - an insiders look by Shilpa Pai Mizar

The UpperCrust food and wine show took place in Bangalore last week. I promised Farzana Contractor, who I really admire that APB would carry a post on it but we only carry real experiences. I was in Kerela that week so I could not go, but then Shilpa Pai Mizar, a lovely lady and a very good writer came to mind and I called on her for help.

Here is what she wrote in...

The foodies of Bangalore have known for a while now that their city is ready to figure on the country’s culinary map. Obviously then, it couldn’t have taken much longer for the inimitable Farzana Contractor and her team to come to the same conclusion.

Result: Bangalore played host, for the very first time, to the reputed UpperCrust food and wine show last weekend, 24-26 Sep 2010. While the exhibition did not offer much that is not already available in Bangalore’s top-end food stores, it was the stalls of the Indian wine makers, all under one roof, that lent a buzz to the event, with the city’s wine aficionados enthusiastically booth-hopping, and enjoying their tasting dutiesJ

That said, it was the Celebrity Chefs Mystery Basket Cookery Contest which attracted a solid turnout of the city’s hard-core foodies – including visiting cuisine experts and local food lit publishers. The competing chefs were Abhijit Saha, Nimish Bhatia, Rajiv Vimal, Jean Micheal Jasserand and Manu Chandra – a dream list for sure.

The basket, which each chef got to open only at the start of the contest, had ten ingredients personally chosen by Ms.Contractor herself, and with soy sauce nestling alongside double cooking cream, offered the maestros an opportunity to experiment with a medley of culinary influences, in a plate, in an hour.

The rock star of Bangalore’s gastronomic space, Abhijit Saha, swept the contest with his combo of Chicken Ala Kiev and L’orange Chicken – where he said attempted to give the meat the texture of duck.

This blogger though, was rather blown away by Chef Bhatia’s entree. The man who put Baluchi cuisine on our radar - at this event he presented the audience with minced chicken in potato wrappers along with a roasted tomato sauce. He also gave us poached prunes with a coriander-stem and fire-roasted chilli relish. As the other chefs pounded and stirred away, it was a delight to watch Chef Bhatia wave tomato and chilli over the burner fire, an impish smile on his face!

~ by Shilpa Pai Mizar