I'd also recommend The science of good cooking by Guy Crosby. I found it to be a more enjoyable read than McGee's. Not as technical which was a boon for me since as a home cook there's a lot more information that can be readily skipped.

For learning to cook: The Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America is a great book to learn from. All the recipes will need to be scaled down for home usage which is a bit of a nuisance though. For the home cook, Essentials Of Cooking, The Elements Of Cooking, or How To Cook Everything: The Basics, are all excellent too. I couldn't decide which was the best, so I listed them all!

For Flavours: The Flavor Bible gives an easy way to look up an ingredient, and see what else would go well with it. Great for creating your own dishes!

The Flavor Thesaurus gives in-depth information about combinations of ingredients, why they work, and how best to use them. Also recommend the Field guide to herbs and spices which gives more general information about each spice/herb than the Thesaurus. They pair well together.

The Magic Of Spice Blends is a great recipe book of various spice blends, and information about them, along with showing you how to formulate your own concoctions.

Pastries and baking: The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry by Bo Friesberg or Baking And Pastry: Mastering The Art And Craft from The Culinary Institute of America. Either or.

Confections: Chocolates and Confections by Peter Greweling.

Bread: Either Jeffrey Hamelman Bread: A Baker's book of techniques and recipes or Peter Reinhart The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

Reference: Dictionary Of Flavors. Literally a Dictionary of anything culinary related. Useful on those rare occasions.

McGee has a very methodical way of discussing food. It is basically like a scientific textbook in that regard, with deeper dives into almost every topic. It is also incredibly information dense, which makes it a truly a 'bible' in my opinion. And for what it is worth, many other of the more methodical chefs on the internet think so too.

It very comprehensive, having a section on every category of food (Dairy, eggs, meat, edible plants, fruit, etc.), the chemistry involved in cooking or preparing said foodstuff, tables of information.

There is a lot of lore behind cooking, people don't always know why they do particular steps in a recipe, that's just how they were taught. It's nice to break down the fundamentals and tweak recipes with that better understanding.

For example, understanding what an emulsion is you can have a better understanding on why hollandaise sauce or mayonnaise breaks, also what acids one can replace when you don't have what a recipe calls for.

Cooking is a practice that I do several times a day, knowing the chemistry behind what I'm doing allows me more flexibility in the tools I use and the process I take.