Here's an absolutely miind blowing lecture by Hervé This. It's long but definitely worth it. He's sorta the French Harold McGee (as I've mentioned previously).

On a related note, Sarah (who is amazing, and I will never get tired of mentioning that) got me the Fat Duck Cookbook as one of my Xmas presents this year. What's weird is that she chose this without any memory of ever seeing this post I wrote last summer about how much I wanted said book. I guess you do get to know each other after a few years...

Happy Festivus, y'all