Nadia Santini: key obituary facts
Is Nadia Santini dead? Yes. Nadia Santini died on November 2, 2026, at age 73.
Cause of death: Nadia Santini's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Nadia Santini known for?
She was an Italian chef.
More about Nadia Santini
Born: 1 January 1953.
Place of birth: San Pietro Mussolino.
Gender: female.
Occupation: chef.
Nationality: Italy.
Awards: Michelin star.
Nadia Santini, an Italian chef known for Dal Pescatore, died November 2, 2026, aged 73.
Born in San Pietro Mussolino, she became closely associated with the restaurant in Canneto sull’Oglio, Lombardy, which has held three Michelin stars since 1996. Dal Pescatore began as a trattoria opened by the great-grandparents of Santini’s future husband in the 1910s.
Santini learned to cook at a young age from her future husband’s great-grandmother, Teresa, and took over the restaurant’s running with her husband in 1974. The restaurant received its third Michelin star in 1996, making Santini the first Italian woman to be awarded the distinction. She described her approach to cooking in terms of the scale of the dining room and the attention she could give each dish. “I think it is impossible for a woman to run a kitchen that serves 100 people,” she said. “I can’t give my heart to a dish if I am cooking for more than 30.” Her career and the restaurant’s reputation were thus bound to a small-scale model of service, with cooking shaped around the number of diners she believed she could serve with care.