The Chef's Compendium of Professional Recipes

I have recently replaced this old standard with a new, updated model. It is important to know a little about cooking and the basic French techniques before trying this book. It then becomes the most concise, precise and thorough guide to virtually anything you want to prepare. It has stood the test of time. If you agree that the single most important cookbook in your library is The Joy of Cooking then The Compendium would be number two. A great collection of most classic recipes without all the rhetoric.

I found this book a few years back in a second hand bookstore. So far it has become one of my preferred cookbooks. It has most of the "classical" recipies. The only faults are that it leaves many techniques undescribed and that it has a rather inconsitent translation to metric measures.