I grew up with my dad in the restaurant business and the one thing I learned was cooking pots, pans and sauce pans had to be utilitarian. They suffer from years of abuse by cooks and then pot wallopers who had their own section in a kitchen and had to keep a steady supply of pots and pans to the cooks.
My go to cookbook has always been the Joy of Cooking but I found the one you mentioned interesting since I like French cuisine.