NADIA SANTINI DIES AT 72: ITALY'S FIRST WOMAN CHEF WITH THREE MICHELIN STARS
The food world is mourning Nadia Santini, the self-taught Italian cook who became the first woman in her country to win three Michelin stars.
She died on Monday 2 November, aged 72, surrounded by her family, according to Sky TG24 and Il Giorno.
Her family revealed she had lived with illness for around 20 years, yet she kept working in the kitchen she loved for almost all of that time.
Her sons announced the news on the restaurant's Instagram page, signing off with a simple, heartbreaking line: "Grazie Nadia, grazie Mamma."
Who Was Nadia Santini?
Born in 1954 in San Pietro Mussolino, near Vicenza in north-eastern Italy, Nadia grew up in a farming family and was cooking from childhood.
She studied food science, then met her future husband, Antonio Santini, while they were both students at university in Milan.
When they married in 1974, she joined his family's business, Dal Pescatore, a country restaurant beside the Oglio river in Runate, in the province of Mantua.
The restaurant's own history explains that it began in the 1920s as a humble tavern serving wine and fish, founded by Antonio's grandparents.
Nadia learned the family recipes at the elbow of her mother-in-law, Bruna, and slowly made the kitchen her own.
From Country Trattoria To Three Michelin Stars
Under her quiet leadership, Dal Pescatore earned its first Michelin star in 1982 and a second in 1988.
The third arrived in 1996, making Nadia Santini the first Italian woman chef to reach the guide's highest honour.
Remarkably, the restaurant has held all three stars ever since, which Il Fatto Quotidiano notes is an unbroken run of 30 years.
In 2013 she was named the World's Best Female Chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants, and in 2022 the Michelin Guide recognised her with its Chef Mentor award.
Yet she never chased fame, and she famously preferred a small dining room so she could put her heart into every plate.
A Kitchen Built On Family
Dal Pescatore has always been a family affair, now in its fourth generation.
Her husband Antonio looked after guests in the dining room, while their son Giovanni now leads the kitchen and their son Alberto runs front of house.
In their tribute, the family thanked her for teaching them moral rigour, a strong work ethic and simplicity.
They also wrote that she had left a deep mark on their lives, built on sensitivity, empathy and love.
It is a lovely reminder that the most celebrated careers are often rooted in the most ordinary things: a table, a family and a lot of patience.
The Dishes That Made Her Name
Nadia's cooking was rooted in the flavours of her adopted home in Lombardy, and she once described her style as "humanistic" because it was so tied to place and people.
Diners travelled from across the globe for her pumpkin tortelli, a Mantuan classic of soft pasta parcels filled with sweet pumpkin.
Other favourites included risotto alla pilota, delicate agnoli served in broth, and the crisp parmesan wafers offered at the start of every meal.
None of these dishes relied on showy tricks, just beautiful local produce treated with enormous care.
How To Honour Her At Home
If you would like to pay a small tribute to Nadia Santini this week, you do not need a Michelin-starred kitchen.
Roast a little pumpkin until it is sweet and soft, mash it with parmesan, and spoon it into fresh lasagne sheets or wonton wrappers for easy homemade parcels.
Finish them with melted butter and a few sage leaves, then share them around the table with people you love.
It is exactly the kind of generous, unfussy cooking that defined her life's work.
Our thoughts are with Antonio, Giovanni, Alberto and the whole Dal Pescatore family.
