A well-known California chef arrested on suspicion of robbing a bank in 2018 was back behind bars this week after police said he robbed three banks in a single day.
Chef Valentino Luchin, 62, who worked at two popular San Francisco restaurants, including one he owned, was arrested on Wednesday on multiple robbery charges.
San Francisco police responded to a report of a robbery but the suspect had already fled. An employee told authorities that a man had passed them a note “demanding money,” and they complied.
“Fearing for their safety, the employee complied and provided the suspect with a bag of U.S. currency. The suspect then fled from the area with the money,” police said in a press release.
Authorities later learned there were two other bank robberies in the area, “involving a similar suspect description and modus operandi (MO)” that same day, police said. Authorities did not say how much money was stolen.
Luchin was identified as the suspect in all three robberies, in part due to tips received from the community, police said.
Officers then formed a strategic plan to arrest the 62-year-old chef at his home in the nearby Central District. He was taken into custody without incident.
He was booked into the San Francisco County Jail and is facing two charges of robbery and one of attempted robbery.
It wasn’t the chef’s first run-in with authorities. He was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery at a California bank in 2018, KTLA reported.
During that incident, Luchin apparently entered a Citibank with a fake gun and made off with $18,000 in cash. He was arrested several hours later at a health club near his home.
“At the time, I thought it was a good plan,” the chef said in a jailhouse interview with the East Bay Times. “But it was not.”
During the interview, the chef admitted that the 2016 closure of his restaurant, Ottavio Osteria, which he owned and was the head chef at, had left him in financial turmoil.
Italian-born Luchin worked as the executive chef at Rose Pistola in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood before opening Ottavio Osteria, according to KTLA.
At the time of his previous arrest, Luchin expressed regret, telling the East Bay Times he felt “very sorry” for his actions.
He was quoted as saying: “My action wasn’t aggressive. It was a fake gun. I don’t even know how to load a real gun,’ adding: “Desperation leads you to do things you never thought you were capable of.”
However, when he was asked why he did it, he simply said, “s*** happens.” It was not clear whether he was ever charged over the incident.
In 2022, SFGate reported that Luchin was joining the Old Clam House, one of the oldest restaurants in San Francisco, as their chef. It was not immediately clear whether or not he still works there.
