General Cooking Questions

Hello all, I hate to reference Kitchen Confidential because it seems almost cliche to do so, but I thought this might make for interesting conversation. In one portion of the book Bourdain discusses some of his "secret weapons" in the kitchen, or rather, ingredients that can really take a dish to another level and make it something special. In his list he mentions butter, stock, roasted garlic, parsley chaffonade and shallots.