So, you're in the kitchen planning (or heaven help you if you're mid way through cooking for) a dinner party and you look at the Celeb Chef's guidance and ask to the heavens "what is he on about". This is where Larousse comes in. This is not a cookery book by itself, it is a manual to food and drink of a kind that has no competitor. You need to know what an obscure ingredient is, and what you can replace it with if you can't trace it? Look in Larousse. You've got one of those complicated Rick Stein books and he's telling you prepare your vegetables à la Ménagère, and after you've scratched your head for a bit, you reach for Larousse and there you are. This book is amazing, but will not go into the finer details of all food stuffs as this is not what it's for, and there are loads of books on the market place on subjects such as soya and the like.
OK, so there have been some mixed reports on this book with some good and some bad. Take it for what it is; it's an encyclopedia after all, and should be THE standard book for any gastronome. Complaining about lack of in-depth knowledge on one food type, or lack of complex recipes is the same as grumbling about the Encyclopedia Britannica for not having enough of a story line or having an accurate description of the inner workings of a Ford Mondeo! Use it, embrace it, and live by it. Amen.