SAN FRANCISCO — At this point, it’s probably safe to assume that Valentino Luchin is better at cooking risotto, calamari, and grilled lamb sirloin than he is at robbing banks.

In 2018, the celebrated chef and former owner of an Italian restaurant in Walnut Creek pleaded guilty to robbing an Orinda bank and received a yearlong jail sentence, followed by probation. Now he’s back in jail, this time in San Francisco, where prosecutors accuse him of robbing three banks within a single day, court records show.

Luchin, the former owner and executive chef at the now defunct Ottavio restaurant, blamed his last bank robbery on financial “desperation,” adding in a jailhouse interview with this news organization that “s— happens.” The following year, he declared bankruptcy in federal court, records

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