Like most young people who bake today at home, I did not grow up learning from my mother or grandmother what happened when I added more flour or orange juice to a cake recipe. Without this knowledge, changes to recipes produce difficult-to-predict results. Though Ms. Figoni writes more for the professional pastry chef, her clear explanations of the chemistry of baking should enlighten the home baker as well.
I have used this book recently as I have tried to modify my American recipes while living in France. Before coming to France, I always followed my recipes exactly with pleasing results, but that is impossible in a different country, as various products are not always available. While for my regular cooking, this has rarely proved to be a problem, in pastries and breads, there is a complicated chemistry (particularly with products that rise) which can simply fail. Ms. Figoni's book has proven to be extremely useful in trying to deal with differently milled flour, finding baking powder (knowing the chemical composition helped), and understanding substitutions of ingredients. More importantly, reading the book has given me a more profound understanding of baking, allowing me to improve recipes systematically rather than rather at random.