Steve Samson was making dinner for some classmate friends of his at Columbia University one night when it happened.

He figured his life out.

Up until then he had gotten his degree in history and English from UC San Diego, but decided after that maybe he should follow his father’s and brother’s examples and become a physician. So he had to take a lot of science and math requirements, but he managed to get into Columbia to study medicine.

So there he was in New York with his new career path mapped out when his friend Alex Goor had an epiphany.

“He knew I had a lot more passion for food than I did medicine,” Samson said. “So he opened up the Yellow Pages, pointed to the page on cooking schools and told me, ‘If you don’t call then I will.’ ”

Samson enrolled in cooking school and eventually found his way back home to Los Angeles where he worked in restaurants. A few months ago he helped open up Pizzeria Ortica in Costa Mesa and is its executive chef and partner.

I can attest to his culinary skills. I met him at the Taste of the Nation benefit for Share Our Strength at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach Friday night where nearly two dozen restaurants served up their fare to raise money for hungry kids. Samson fed me a small food sample of oven-roasted vegetables with giola burratta drizzled with basil oil — I usually avoid anything I suspect that’s even a bit spicy because of, well, years of stomach problems dating back to my ulcers, but I have to say it was delicious and made me want to visit his restaurant. I had to give up pizza long ago, but he tells me he has a vegan pizza on the menu, which sounds good to me.

I found it kind of odd that a room full of wealthy people noshed on expensive food and drinks to raise money for starving children so I asked Samson about that and he had an interesting take. He said he had volunteered for similar Share Our Strength fundraisers in Los Angeles, but that the Newport one was his first in Orange County. He said he got into work early that day to prepare the food and here it was about 8 p.m. and he was out there himself greeting people and serving his dishes. I guess it’s easy to knock rich people these days with all this populist classist complaining going around, but the fact is they’re in the best position to help and with donations plunging because of the faltering economy it’s nice to see anyone pitching in at all. So everyone involved in the event deserves a big thank you for helping out such a worthy cause.

And it was a nice little bonus to hear Steve’s story about taking a chance on his dreams. Even more pleasing was to hear why Steve is so drawn to food; he considers his job “humbling.”

“It’s the most natural thing in life to feed people,” he explained. In other words, it keeps him grounded. And that’s a nice place to be.

(P.S. That’s Mona above clowning with Steve as he serves her a dish).

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