Acclaimed Brisbane chef Tony Percuoco celebrates 50-year career

As a youngster in Naples, Tony Percuoco learned to cook whether he ‘liked it or not’. From that humble start the acclaimed Brisbane restaurateur built a career that has spanned 50 years … and he’s not slowing down just yet, writes Ayla Connolly.

Restaurateur Tony Percuoco who is celebrating 50 years as a chef, at Tartufo Ristorante in Fortitude Valley. Picture Lachie Millard

When his wife asks him what he would do if he won $30m in the Lotto, acclaimed chef Tony Percuoco’s answer is simple.

“I guess we could go down to (working) four days a week,” he says.

Percuoco, the owner of Italian dining institution Tartufo, in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, is this year celebrating 50 years as a professional chef.

Tony Percuoco, the owner of Italian dining institution, Tartufo, pictured with wife Gordana. Photo: Supplied.

But his family’s pioneering journey to bring an authentic Italian dining experience to Australian food lovers has not always been an easy one.

Just like many of his Italian counterparts, and for immigrants to Australia from other nations, Percuoco faced racism and discrimination when he arrived in Sydney from Naples in the 1970s.

“When we moved here, I still had two years of school, and that was one of the biggest challenges,” he said.

“At the time, I hated my father for bringing us to this country.”

Restaurateur Tony Percuoco at his beloved Tartufo Ristorante in Fortitude Valley. Picture Lachie Millard

“But, I remember so clearly, that when my father turned 60, we threw a massive party and we were actually thanking him for bringing us here.”

His father, Mario, and brother, Armando, were at the forefront of several of Australia’s most recognisable and esteemed Italian restaurants, and it is widely claimed they were responsible for making antipasto an institution in this country.

The duo, co-founders of Sydney’s landmark Pulcinella and Buon Ricordo restaurants, alongside matriarch Olimpia, deeply inspired Percuoco’s journey through the last five decades.

The Percuoco family: Tony, Anna, Olimpia, Armando, Carmela and Mario (brother John not pictured)

As a teenager, Percuoco was determined to work in the industry, having spent his formative years in the kitchen with his family – as is the Italian ‘way of life’.

“In Italy, every weekend we were on a milk crate stirring the ragu – you had to keep stirring it so it didn’t burn, and if it burned I got in trouble,” he said.

“You get to learn to cook, whether you like it or not.”

At just 15 he convinced staff at the prestigious Bennelong Restaurant at Sydney’s Opera House that he was 18, and spent the next several years developing and honing his craft, working his way up from cleaning and waiting roles to a coveted position as an apprentice chef.

His little white lie was never discovered and to this day, the general manager of Bennelong is a friend and comes to dine at Tartufo when he is in Brisbane.

Percuoco later left Bennelong and returned to his father and brother’s restaurant, and was humbled when his father assigned him to washing dishes, arguing he had only been formally trained in classical French cuisine during his time at the Opera House.

Tony Percuoco, the owner of Italian dining institution, Tartufo, celebrates 50 years of culinary excellence. Photo: Supplied.

Since those early years, Percuoco has developed some of Australia’s most recognisable restaurants, and cooked for some of the world’s most famous people, including the late Queen and King Charles.,

But while cooking for the elite is an incredible experience, he says they are not among his most rewarding memories.

The Percuoco family have been involved in countless charity endeavours and Armando Percuoco was a founding member of the Starlight Foundation’s Five Chef’s dinner, which is a major fundraising event for the organisation that brings together five of Australia’s best chefs to cook for attendees, including Percuoco.

One of Percuoco’s fondest memories was when a couple of “particular customers” spent $60,000 each – donated to the Starlight Foundation – to eat a meal cooked by him.

“I’m not normally an emotional man, but that night, I got very emotional,” he said.

Starlight Foundation Five Chefs Dinner (L to R): David Stoddat, Cameron Matthews, Alejandro Cancino, Patrice Falantin, Tony Percuoco and Jake Nicolson

He also recalled an evening where he had been at a Starlight function as an attendee, when he was asked to grant a Starlight wish.

“I was next door to one of my restaurants at an official function,” he said.

“I was in a tuxedo and I left the function because one of the (Starlight) kids was coming in to see how we cook.

“So I went with this child, in my tuxedo, and afterwards I come back to the function and they said I had won a major award but had missed the ceremony and I just said ‘Oh cool’, because that experience with that child was way better.”

Percuoco said that after 14 years of Tartufo, he had recently signed a further 10-year lease on the Ann St venue, and hoped to make it at least another six before he considered slowing down and retiring.

Restaurateur Tony Percuoco who is celebrating 50 years as a chef, at Tartufo Ristorante in Fortitude Valley. Picture Lachie Millard

“In July, I turned 65 and you used to be able to retire then … I find that the scary part. I don’t know what I’d do,” he said

In the next decade, he wants to focus on using fresh sustainable, local and in-season ingredients in his menu.

“I’m putting my foot down … let’s try and leave something – not for next generation but for four, five generations down the line,” he said.