It looks really interesting because each chapter has recipes based on a different single ingredient. What really got me though, was that I realized that while I know what "quintessence" means, I did not know why it means what it does.
So, being a curious sort of librarian, I looked it up on the Online Etymology Dictionary and found out.
"quintessence
c.1430, in ancient and medieval philosophy, "pure essence, substance of which the heavenly bodies are composed," lit. "fifth essence," from M.Fr. quinte essence (14c.), from M.L. quinta essentia, from L. quinta, fem. of quintus "fifth" + essentia (see essence). Loan-translation of Gk. pempte ousia, the "ether" added by Aristotle to the four known elements (water, earth, fire, air) and said to permeate all things. Its extraction was one of the chief goals of alchemy. Sense of "purest essence" (of a situation, character, etc.) is first recorded 1570; quintessential (n.) is from 1899, in this sense."
Cool, huh?
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