Heh. Wanted that for Christmas a few years ago, somehow my mom got confused and got me the not exactly similarly named "the science of cooking", which ended up being in the same ballpark, and helped improve my cooking anyway :)
In a similar vein - Ratio by Michael Ruhlman does a great job of breaking down the whys of recipes so you can start exploring and making things your own.
Heh. Wanted that for Christmas a few years ago, somehow my mom got confused and got me the not exactly similarly named "the science of cooking", which ended up being in the same ballpark, and helped improve my cooking anyway :)