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The owner of Hana Japanese Restaurant in Rohnert Park has passed away. Chef Kenichi “Ken” Tominaga died at the age of 61 this past Monday morning after a brief illness. Tominaga grew up in Tokyo but moved to California after graduation to join his family’s business, an optics company in Santa Rosa. After the business was sold, Tominaga went to cooking school in Tokyo and later opened Hana Japanese Restaurant in 1990 in the DoubleTree Plaza shopping mall. He later went on to partner with other chefs and entrepreneurs to open other restaurants including PABU Izakaya in San Francisco and PABU Boston with celebrity chef Michael Mina. Most recently, he was a partner at The Matheson with Chef Dustin Valette in Healdsburg. Chef Ken is survived by his mother, wife, two sons, and his brother.