Originally Posted by
baggageinhall
Thomas Keller's Bouchon and French Laundry books. The former is useful and can be followed, the latter requires enormous amounts of time and a brigade of assistance.
I've been thinking of picking up Ad Hoc by him. I've heard his three books are very informative in terms of what to buy, what to use, why do x....Sounds like something you could take with you outside of just the book's recipes.