At a restaurant in San Francisco, the staff has been learning a bit of Hawaiian. Every week it’s something new — mahalo nui, e komo mai, aloha aina.

“Aloha aina,” said chef/owner Jordan Keao. “Loving the land. I can see one of our servers saying this to our guests, emphasizing the fact that the land is important to us.”

So important that Keao named his restaurant ‘aina, with its focus on food with an island sensibility, using ingredients from Hawaii supplemented by the likes of Bay Area ogo, all presented in a way that meets the sophistication of this food-centric city.

For example: “Spam” musubi, which is a Spam-looking meat (actually made in-house with pork from nearby Stone Valley Farm) wrapped in a red butter leaf with kim chee and furikake-flavored egg yolk. And octopus luau, with kalo cream, coconut and roasted almonds.

“It’s literally the kind of stuff I cook for myself because I miss my home so much,” Keao said.

He’ll be among featured chefs tonight at “Raw & Wild in the Tank” at Salt at Our Kakaako, a $95 dining event that kicks off the Oahu segment of the Hawai‘i Food & Wine Festival.

The chef grew up in Waiakea Uka in Hilo, with much time spent fishing and cooking with an uncle. His family moved to Boston when he was 12, and while many kids at that age might have come to identify with their new city, Hawaii has always been home for Keao.

At 18 he returned to the Big Island for a yearlong reconnection, then decided on a career in cooking and left for culinary school in San Diego. This lead to a job at Roy Yamaguchi’s restaurant in La Jolla, Calif., followed by La Folie, a Michelin-star restaurant in San Francisco. Then came postings at top positions at the Google corporate campus in Mountain View, Calif., where he ran a kitchen that served about 1,500 diners a day — “doing, like, whole suckling pig.”

“I learned to run a business as well as a kitchen,” Keao said.

Later, while in a similar position at Airbnb, Keao started ‘aina as a pop-up. Three years ago it became a bricks-and-mortar restaurant.

“The goal was to open a restaurant that had rice and eggs for brunch. That’s hard to find in the area.”

‘Aina has expanded to dinner, earning the attention of the Michelin Guide, which has awarded it a Bib Gourmand award for “favorites for good value.”

Keao hasn’t been able to come home much in the last few “lightning fast” years, but he hopes to have a restaurant here in two to three years. He plans to train his San Francisco staff in Hawaii, to familiarize them with island foods and traditions.

“It’s easier to hire people if you can say, ‘Once a year we’re going to send you to Hawaii.’”