Fresh out of culinary school--and still dizzy from the experience--I kissed the ground. Somehow surviving New York, delivered back to the land of milk and honey, it would take me a while to figure out if I could survive the restaurant business, but I was hell-bent on finding out. The Monterey Bay sparkled its welcome, that much was sure.

Tom and I graduated together, and with his van and my car loaded up with two year''s accumulation of academia and culinary tools, we beat a hot path back to California. One of Tom''s everlasting frustrations was feeling like much of school was a waste of time. He''d had the good fortune to apprentice under a chef at a big hotel in Southern California, someone of a caliber that outdistanced most, and according to Tom, it was an experience that made school seem redundant. As luck would have it, the same guy had recently opened his own place in Pacific Grove--he''d be the one who could fill us in on the area.

As pilgrims, we landed on a rainy night, road ragged and dazed, into the good graces of Sylvia Medina and Paulo Kautz. A bottle of crisp white wine was opened and we were fed their delectable herb-roasted chicken and crusty herb potatoes, one of many excellent, simple dishes that Taste Caf‚ and Bistro makes sing. It felt like coming home.

Hard to believe that was eight years ago, almost to the day. A lot can happen in that time; Tom now owns the Bittersweet Bistro in Aptos, and I am a chef expatriated.

Although brief, I had the experience of working in Paulo''s kitchen, one of many initial part-time jobs, trying to figure out a fit.

In retrospect, I don''t think I''d exactly call Paulo an easy person to work for. For one thing, the guy seems to have eyes in the back of his head; he sees everything. And, in your nervousness, if you find yourself in his gaze while inexplicably smashing a shallot when you know darn well shallots must be minced--WITH AN EXTREMELY SHARP KNIFE--crediting Tom with this timesaving innovation is not recommended. Paulo''s is the sort of uncompromising diligence to detail that has made Taste a truly fine restaurant. They are an amazing team, with Sylvia''s inherent professionalism (and sweetness) providing a complementary balance.

Theirs is a success story not often duplicated. Planning for a place of their own was a year''s long proposition. They went to auctions, acquiring equipment that they cleaned and repaired. They opened in a location that seemed unlikely. They knew no one here. They were parents of a toddler. They spent no money on advertising and they opened the first night with $15 in the register. That same night, the oven went out. On the second night, they had a full house. Nine years later, it can still be tough to get a seat. Without missing a beat, Paulo and Sylvia''s Taste Caf‚ and Bistro raised the level of local dining to new heights.

With the rumor mill grinding itself into a frenzy--and producing a predictably less-than-accurate representation of reality--let it be known that Taste will remain part of the local dining landscape, under new ownership. Sylvia and Paulo will soon pass the torch to a new team, but plan to remain in the area. On behalf of all their fans, some well-deserved congratulations to them and their daughter, Alexandra, on getting to take some time off and be a ''regular'' family. cw