What Happens with 'Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen'?

 

Now Words and Their Stories from VOA Learning English.

On today’s show we go into the kitchen.

The kitchen is not just where we prepare meals. In many places, the kitchen is the heart of the home. It is where we start our day with a cup of coffee or tea. It’s where we connect with our family and friends. We talk about our days while we make dinner or have a bite to eat. The kitchen is where we feed ourselves, body and soul.

So, it can be a very busy room in the house. Sometimes you need order in the kitchen for things to run smoothly¹. And sometimes you need one person to be in charge.

That’s right. Imagine you are cooking dinner for your friends. As you are making the soup, your friend Sara tastes it and says, “This needs more salt.” So, she adds more salt.

Then Harlan comes into the kitchen. He tastes your soup and says, “You didn’t put enough pepper.” So he grinds² some fresh black pepper into the pot and some dried herbs.

Cecilia sees him. She tastes the soup and says, “You forgot vinegar. It’s my secret ingredient.” Then she pours in some vinegar.

You are happy to spend time with your friends. But, quite frankly³, all their opinions about your soup are becoming annoying. Worst of all, you taste the soup and it’s awful!

Chefs prepare food during the final of the "Bocuse d'Or" (Golden Bocuse) trophy⁴, in Lyon, central France, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

And that is where we get the expression “too many cooks spoil the soup.” You may also hear this expression with “broth⁵” or “dish” instead of “soup.” You can also say simply, “Too many cooks …” and English speakers will know exactly what you mean.

This expression describes an age-old problem: If too many people help to complete a task, it may not go very well. Too many people in the “kitchen” – or too many people trying to do the same task – can turn the situation into a hot mess.

But, you may ask, “If many people are trying to get something done, the task will get done faster.” After all, American English also has the expression “many hands make light work.” (This would be the opposite of “too many cooks in the kitchen.”)

To answer that point, I will draw your attention to the word “cook.” Now, the cook is the leader in the kitchen. They may have assistants to help them. But the cook has the final say.

So, what if a kitchen has many cooks? Who is the leader? Everyone! And that’s where the trouble comes in.

Maybe you have experienced this. Let’s say you are trying to do something – for example, decorate your living room. You have picked your paint and made a plan to rearrange your furniture. Then some friends come over to help. You think they are just going to do the heavy lifting and take your directions.

However, your friends think you should listen to their design ideas – like Marcus. He mixes your pale yellow paint with some dark red and covers the walls with a color you hate.

Your friend Winnie has strong opinions about the furniture. She replaces your couch⁶ and chair with big pillows. “But where will I sit?” you say. She answers, “On the floor. Look how much more room you have!”

Meanwhile, Talia decides to put red light bulbs in all your lamps and lights.

When they leave, your living room looks dark, orange, empty, scary and awful! Your mom comes over to see the results and asks, “What happened?!” You can simply answer simply, “Too many cooks, Mom. Too many cooks.”

Know that you can use this kitchen expression in any situation. Let’s hear it used at work.

Manuel, do you have a minute? I’d like to talk to you about an upcoming project.

Sure. What’s the project?

Well, I need someone to lead the new marketing⁷ account and I thought you’d be interested.

Yes, I would! Thanks.

Great! You’ll have to work with our in-house graphics⁸ department as well as our new writing staff.

Sure. But I want to be the leader of the project. If there are too many cooks in the kitchen, the project could fail.

I totally agree. You are in charge.

In other words, having too many managers and not enough workers is not a good situation.

And that brings us to the end of this Words and Their Stories.

Actually Anna, I think we should end with a new theme song.

Thanks, Bryan. But I’ve already picked out a song to end with, so...

But you are going to love it! I’m just going to play it for a second or two.

Thanks Bryan. But there are one too many cooks in the Words and Their Stories kitchen!

Until next time … I’m Anna Matteo.

And I’m Bryan Lynn.

Anna Matteo wrote this story. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. The song at the end is The Colonel⁹ singing “Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen.”

There's too many cooks in the kitchen

There's too many minds on the job

There's too many cooks in the kitchen

Everybody wants a piece of the action

Cooking the books and getting their fractions wrong

Words in This Story

soup – n. a food made by cooking vegetables, meat, or fish in a large amount of liquid

stew¹⁰ – n. a dish of usually meat with vegetables prepared by slow boiling

broth – n. liquid in which meat, fish, cereal¹¹ grains, or vegetables have been cooked

smoothly – adv. to remove problems or difficulties from a situation

ingredient – n. one of the things that are used to make a food, product, etc.

hot mess – n. informal : something or someone that is emphatically a mess: such as : something in a state of extreme disorder¹² or disarray¹³

many hands make light work idiom : used to say that people can do things more quickly and easily when they work together

opposite – adj. someone or something that is completely different from someone or something else

pale – adj. light in color

in-house – adj. existing, originating¹⁴, or carried on within a group or organization or its facilities : not outside

graphics – adj. relating to the artistic use of pictures, shapes, and words especially in books and magazines

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1 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

2 grinds   

v.磨碎，嚼碎( grind的第三人称单数 )；旋转开动；压迫，折磨

参考例句：

• All night she grinds her teeth together, keeping me awake. 她整夜咬牙，吵得我睡不着觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mother usually grinds down the food for the baby. 母亲一般要把食物嚼碎再喂给婴儿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

4 trophy   

n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品

参考例句：

• The cup is a cherished trophy of the company.那只奖杯是该公司很珍惜的奖品。
• He hung the lion's head as a trophy.他把那狮子头挂起来作为狩猎纪念品。

5 broth   

n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等)

参考例句：

• Every cook praises his own broth.厨子总是称赞自己做的汤。
• Just a bit of a mouse's dropping will spoil a whole saucepan of broth.一粒老鼠屎败坏一锅汤。

6 couch   

n.睡椅，长沙发椅；vt.表达，隐含

参考例句：

• Lie down on the couch if you're feeling ill.如果你感觉不舒服就躺到沙发上去。
• The rabbIt'sprang from its grassy couch.兔子从草丛中跳出。

7 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

8 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。

9 colonel   

n.(英国陆军、美国陆空军及海军陆战队)上校

参考例句：

• It's a pity we didn't mend our fences with the colonel.可惜我们还没有和上校先生调整好关系。
• An army major ranks between a captain and a colonel.陆军少校的军阶在上尉与中校之间。

10 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

11 cereal   

n.谷类，五谷，禾谷

参考例句：

• I have hot cereal every day for breakfast.我每天早餐吃热麦片粥。
• Soybeans are handled differently from cereal grains.大豆的加工处理与谷类的加工处理不同。

12 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

13 disarray   

n.混乱，紊乱，凌乱

参考例句：

• His personal life fell into disarray when his wife left him.妻子离去后，他的个人生活一片混乱。
• Our plans were thrown into disarray by the rail strike.铁路罢工打乱了我们的计划。

14 originating   

v.起源于，来自，产生( originate的现在分词 )；创造；创始；开创

参考例句：

• There is a neoplasm originating in his leg's epidermis. 他的腿上有个生长在表皮上的肿瘤。 来自辞典例句
• Ground waters originating in different beds commingle. 来源于不同层位的地下水相互混合。 来自辞典例句