A Well-Deserved Honor for Oh So Talented Tutti become as familiar and important as the oaks that grace the historic show grounds,” the show’s website utti Perricone has never reads. “They are in fact themselves, ridden a horse, but there ‘Upperville Oaks.’” she was on Saturday, Asked about her initial reaction June 11, being celebrated to being added to the wall, she as one of the newest members said, “I was shocked. But I also felt of the Upperville Colt & Horse honored that they wanted to do that. Show’s Wall of Honor as a tribute I thought it was really sweet…I love to her years of hard work and everybody that’s up there.” overall devotion to the oldest show Perricone is no stranger to the in America. Tutti Perricone hospitality and food industry, Perricone has lived in Middleburg especially locally. her entire life, growing up as the “It was my first and only job,” she said. “I was a youngest of six children who lived a mile out of town bus girl at L’Auberge in Middleburg…a French off Foxcroft Road. She’s worked in various local restaurant. Then I went from there to the Red Fox, restaurants until 1986 when she opened her own, the and I was at the Red Fox for eleven years. Then, Back Street Café. Her popular eatery and catering when Mosby’s Tavern opened, I went there and I was business was located in the Middleburg building now the bookkeeper. From Mosby’s Tavern, I opened up occupied by Best Thai Kitchen. my own restaurant in 1986. I had it for 26 years. That “My contribution has never really been financial, was the Backstreet Cafe.” it’s always been through services there.” Perricone From that Federal Street location, she did catering said. “As far as my computer books go back, and it’s and ran the restaurant, no easy feat. probably further than this, I started catering there in “Don’t ask me how I did it,” she said, “because it 2007. So every year I do the evening cocktail parties and the Wall of Honor lunch. I’ve always really loved was a tiny little building.” the Upperville Horse Show. It seems like a very wellIn 2011, she closed the restaurant and decided organized event that everyone looks forward to.” to focus on catering. She also was approached by The Wall of Honor was established in 2005 as a way to Middleburg Academy to prepare student lunches, pay tribute to people and horses who have contributed with the opportunity to use the school’s kitchen for to the show’s success. “Those who return year after the catering business. She did that until the school year to work on the committee or compete have closed in 2020, and the Middleburg Community By Ali Patusky
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Charter School offered her a similar job soon after. “I do lunches for kindergarteners through fifth graders, which is adorable,” she said. “I love it. I make them homemade food and they always get fresh fruits and vegetables.” Perricone attended that school as a child when it was the Middleburg Elementary School, “and now I’m back there in another capacity, and it’s really sweet.” In addition to her considerable culinary skills, she’s also known around the area as an accomplished singer. She’s had two one-woman shows, her most recent in 2020 as a tribute to her late husband, Vince Perricone, who passed away in 2019. She also has worked with her good friend Tom Sweitzer, cofounder of Middleburg’s innovative music therapy center, A Place To Be. “When he first came to Middleburg, he was teaching at the Hill School,” she said, “and he did a lot of plays there. I used to be one of his actors.” Her favorite part, of course, was the music. “I’ve always loved to sing,” she said. “When I had my restaurant I would sing on special occasions like Valentine’s Day and New Years. I’ve never done it professionally. I always say I want to be a lounge singer when I grow up, so we’ll see what happens.” Perricone clearly has had a lasting impact on most everyone she meets. As one of her closest friends, Cricket Bedford, said, “What I love best about Tutti is she not only literally ‘feeds’ all of us around her with her delicious food, but she feeds our souls with her genuine warmth and kindness. Just try to find a photo when she’s not smiling.”
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MIDDLEBURG SUSTAINABLE COMMITTEE| Autumn 2022
