Pastry chef at Florence’s Brunelleschi Hotel since 2022, he leads the sweet programme for the two-Michelin-star Santa Elisabetta restaurant and oversees breakfast and hotel pastry production. In 2025 he joined AMPI Juniores, the young talent pathway of the Accademia Maestri Pasticceri Italiani.
In the heart of Florence, within the gastronomic ecosystem of the Brunelleschi Hotel, Francesco De Padova works as a pastry chef with a kitchen-minded approach before anything else: desserts designed to close a fine-dining journey, alongside the everyday pastry output that must match the pace of hospitality. Since 2022 he has been listed among the hotel’s key culinary figures, responsible for the dessert menu at Santa Elisabetta as well as breakfast service, in-room petit fours and biscuits, and house-made gelato.
His profile is rooted in Southern Italy: Puglian origins and a declared affinity with the Campanian school, with a recurring focus on the interplay of acidity and salinity. In trade press statements, he describes bringing into the team a background built through travel and experiences abroad, “combining it with a passion for the flavours of the South”.
A key step came in 2015 in Vico Equense, at Torre del Saracino (Gennaro Esposito), where his professional relationship with Rocco De Santis began. “We come from the same school… it’s easy to build a dessert together,” he explained, highlighting a method based on dialogue and creative autonomy.
Today his work moves across different registers: on one side, the precision required to finish a tasting menu; on the other, the operational strength of large-scale production, where technique, organisation and repeatability become part of the signature. In 2023, he also took his own panettone to public events dedicated to Italian festive breads, appearing at Panettone Maximo with a chocolate-focused version presented live.
In 2025 he joined AMPI Juniores, the youth group of the Accademia Maestri Pasticceri Italiani—an entry that places his name within a training and representation pathway aimed at the new generation of pastry chefs. In parallel, he appears among Bongiovanni’s “Mastri Artigiani”, a network that gathers selected professionals for collaborations and projects.
