I don't really like Ad Hoc at Home. It's IMHO unnecessary in terms of techniques and complexity. I don't need to blanch my vegetables to make dinner for my family. Admittedly I wasn't wowed by my meal at Per Se either. I would like to go to TFL though.

I do worship Rulhman though. I also recommend Jennifer McLagan's books for working with nose to tail basics like stock and animal fats.

I usually recommend people visit really good restaurants and seek out books by their favorite chefs. That really got me into Asian cooking through being a fan of the Momofuku restaurants.