🗒️ Idiom: Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth (Saying/Proverb)
💬 Meaning
- When too many people are involved in a task or project, it can lead to confusion, mistakes, and poor results.
- A project often runs more smoothly when a smaller, well-organised team is in charge.
🧠 Example Sentences
- The marketing plan failed because everyone tried to give input. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
- We need one clear decision maker on this project; otherwise, too many cooks will spoil the broth.
- The report took twice as long to complete because the team was too large. Too many cooks spoiled the broth.
🏛️ Origin
This old English proverb dates back to the 1500s. It first appeared in a collection of sayings by John Heywood. The idea comes from cooking — if too many people add ingredients to the same soup, the result won’t taste good. People started using it for teamwork and business situations where too many opinions cause problems.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
We had five managers editing the same file, and the result was a mess — ____________.
Answer
too many cooks spoil the broth
2. Choose the correct meaning:
What does “too many cooks spoil the broth” mean?
a) A big team always works faster
b) Too many people working on the same task can make it worse
c) Everyone should give their opinion on every project
Answer
b) Too many people working on the same task can make it worse
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“Our presentation failed because too many team members tried to control it.”
Answer
Our presentation failed because too many cooks spoiled the broth.
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