A former high-profile California chef has been arrested for allegedly carrying out a spree of bank robberies across San Francisco — all in a single day.
Valentino Luchin, 62, once the executive chef at the iconic North Beach Italian restaurant Rose Pistola, was taken into custody last week for allegedly robbing three banks on September 10, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
Authorities say Luchin entered multiple banks throughout the city, including one on Grant Avenue in Chinatown, where he handed tellers handwritten notes demanding cash. At least one teller, fearing for her safety, complied and gave him a bag of money before he fled the scene. Police have not disclosed the amount stolen.
The SFPD’s Robbery Unit launched an investigation and quickly identified Luchin as the suspect. Officers were able to link him to two additional robberies carried out the same day, citing consistent descriptions and similar methods across all three incidents. Tips from the public and help from the department’s community ambassador program also aided in his identification.
“Officers determined that the suspect who committed these robberies was Luchin,” the SFPD said in a statement. A strategic plan was put in place, and Luchin was arrested later that day without incident. He was booked into the San Francisco County Jail on two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery. He remains in custody as he awaits formal charges.
This is not Luchin’s first brush with the law.
In 2018, the Italian-born chef — who previously owned Ottavio, a now-defunct Italian restaurant in Walnut Creek — was arrested in connection with a Citibank robbery in Orinda, where $18,000 was stolen. Surveillance footage at the time showed a man in a hood, sunglasses, and white gloves, brandishing what was later determined to be a BB gun.
Speaking from jail after that arrest, Luchin told the East Bay Times that the robbery stemmed from financial desperation following the collapse of his restaurant business.
“I thought it was a good plan, but it was not,” he said at the time, emphasizing that he never intended to harm anyone. “My action wasn’t aggressive. It was a fake gun. I don’t even know how to load a real gun.” Luchin also claimed to have written an apology letter to the bank teller involved. It remains unclear whether formal charges were ever filed in that case.
Originally from Italy’s Veneto region, Luchin immigrated to the United States in 1993 and quickly rose to culinary prominence in the Bay Area. But after the closure of Ottavio in 2016, his life appeared to unravel.
“Everything went downhill,” Luchin told East Bay Times during the 2018 interview. “Desperation leads you to do things you never thought you were capable of.”
Bankruptcy records from 2015 revealed that Luchin and his wife were grappling with significant financial strain — over $111,000 in debt and only $27,000 in assets — and had fallen behind on their Chapter 13 repayment plan.
Authorities have not yet announced a court date for Luchin’s latest charges.
