Renowned California Chef Arrested After Alleged Three San Francisco Bank Robberies in One Day
Valentino Luchin, 62, a former executive chef, was taken into custody Sept. 10 after SFPD linked him to three bank robberies; he faces multiple robbery charges and remains jailed pending arraignment.
Valentino Luchin, 62, a well-known Bay Area chef, was arrested Sept. 10 after San Francisco police said he robbed three banks across the city in a single day by handing handwritten notes to tellers demanding cash.
Officers responded to a robbery near Grant Avenue in Chinatown around 12 p.m., where a teller told police the suspect had handed her a note and left with a bag of cash. The San Francisco Police Department said investigators later tied that robbery to two additional Central District bank robberies that day after noting similarities in the suspect description and robbery style. Police did not disclose how much money was taken.
The SFPD said its Robbery Unit, members of the department’s ambassadors program and community tips helped identify Luchin as the suspected robber. "Officers determined that the suspect who committed these robberies was Luchin," police said, and they "formulated a strategic plan that led to Luchin’s apprehension without further incident." Luchin was taken into custody the same day, booked into the San Francisco County Jail and has been charged with two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery; he remained in custody pending arraignment.
Police posted images of some of the alleged money recovered in connection with the incidents but did not disclose the total amount seized. The department has said the investigation is ongoing.
Luchin, born in Italy’s Veneto region, immigrated to the United States in 1993 and became a prominent figure in San Francisco’s restaurant scene. He is a former executive chef at the Italian restaurant Rose Pistola and was the owner of Ottavio in Walnut Creek, which closed in 2016. Financial struggles tied to the restaurant’s closure have surfaced in reporting about Luchin’s legal troubles.
The current allegations follow a prior incident in 2018 in which authorities in Orinda, California, linked a bank robbery at a Citibank branch to a hooded man seen on security footage using a BB gun; the Orinda robbery was reported to have involved $18,000. Following that arrest, Luchin told the East Bay Times in a jailhouse interview that he had acted out of "desperation" after Ottavio closed and that he did not intend to hurt anyone. "Desperation leads you to do things you never thought you were capable of," he told the newspaper.
Bankruptcy records cited by the East Bay Times showed that Luchin and his wife had fallen behind on a Chapter 13 plan in 2015, with more than $111,000 in debt and roughly $27,000 in assets listed at that time.
Authorities say they will continue investigating the Sept. 10 incidents and pursue additional charges if warranted. Court records show Luchin is in custody at the San Francisco County Jail awaiting his initial court appearance; details on a scheduled arraignment and the full formal charges were not immediately available.