SAN DIEGO … Whether Hideo Chino was ruling on a juvenile courtcase, exchanging ideas about food with world-renowned chefs orplaying his guitar, he was at ease, said longtime friend DwightWorden on Saturday.
Chino, who served as a San Diego County Superior Courtcommissioner assigned to juvenile court from 1986 until hisretirement earlier this year, died April 12, 2008, seven monthsafter being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Born March 28, 1943, in the wartime relocation camp in Poston,Ariz, he was the seventh of nine children in the family thatfounded and owns the well-known Chino Farm in Rancho Santa Fe.
“He lived in three worlds,” said Worden.
He could hold his own talking about food with famous chefs suchas Alice Waters of Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse, Bertrand Hug ofRancho Santa Fe’s Mille Fleurs or Wolfgang Puck, Worden said.
He could also “hang out with a bunch of hicks from Arkansasplaying bluegrass music,” Worden added. “And in the court world hewas very respected,”
Chino spent Tuesday evenings and Saturday and Sunday with hisfamily at their 60-acre farm, which has drawn attention from localand national media for its abundant selection of fresh produce.
The family, which had raised cut flowers in Carlsbad beforebeing relocated to the Poston internment camp, began farming theland in 1947. Because of post-war laws, they could only rent theland at first, but in the early 1950s they were able to buy it,Worden said.
Until the 1970s, the business focused on taking produce to LosAngeles. Within five years of setting up the tiny stand in RanchoSanta Fe, they were selling everything from it.
Today the farm is a focal point for many top restaurateurs, whobuy produce there and have become friends with the family.
Waters is one of those chefs. In a phone interview from Irelandon Saturday, she said she met Hideo Chino through doing businesswith the farm.
“He had a passion for food,” she said, calling him “a quietgastronome.”
He spent time cooking in her restaurant and talking to her staffabout their creations.
“He wanted to know about the cheeses, the charcuterie, how tobake the bread,” she said. “He had an insatiable desire tolearn.”
That drove him to become an apprentice at Acme Bakery, known forits artisan breads.
“He would just do something over and over until he got itright,” she added. “We’ve lost a special person from thisplanet.”
Worden first met Chino 35 years ago when the two were lawyerspracticing in the North County area. He said that a friend who knewof Worden’s interest in bluegrass music pointed out Chino in acourtroom and said, “He’s a great flat-pick guitar player.”
So Worden, who plays the mandolin … which Chino also played… introduced himself, and they became friends, members of thesame band and traveling buddies.
They also worked together when Chino joined Worden’s SolanaBeach law firm, Worden and Williams, during the late 1970s andearly 1980s. While affiliated with them, Chino served for a time asassistant city attorney in Del Mar.
On Saturday … if his health had not failed … Chino andWorden would have been onstage with their band at the EncinitasStreet Fair.
Worden recalled his friend’s love of music, telling about thetime Chino won first place in flat-pick guitar competition at theJulian Bluegrass Festival.
A reporter seeking an interview asked his name, to which Chinoresponded, “Joe Smith,” never taking the time to tell him his realname, Worden said.
“The story ran that way,” he said, adding that Chino “could havecared less about the recognition.”
He played regularly with local band the 7th Day Buskers at theHillcrest Farmers market and had a guest spot on their first CD,”Long Live the Caboose.”
As a court commissioner, Chino “had a touch forunderstanding.”
He saw cases involving criminal or “delinquent” youth and thoseinvolving children about to be taking from “families in wreckage”or those whose parents wanted to reunite with their children.
Worden said he was certain that his friend’s empathy in thecourtroom came from his own upbringing.
He said Chino told him stories about days in elementary schoolin Solana Beach, where he had seen “Hispanic children being pickedon by the white kids … he had been picked on by the Hispanickids.”
“I think that’s why he was a good juvenile court judge,” headded. “He was so grounded. It came from his family.”
Hideo Chino met his wife Sheridan “Sherry” Reed, a recentlyretired San Diego Superior Court judge, while they were in lawschool at the University of San Diego, but “there was noelectricity,” Worden said.
That changed when they crossed paths again in the courthouse.The couple married 16 years ago.
Hideo Chino is survived by his wife; son Matsuo and daughterMayumi; brothers Jun Chino, Shigeru Chino, Junji “Jack” Chino; anda sister, Hazuki “Helen” Chino.
Contact freelance writer Kathy Day at[email protected].
