Jump To:

• Too many cooks spoil the broth
  Too many cooks spoil the broth

  When too many people work together on a project, the result is inferior.
• too many cooks spoil the broth
  too many cooks spoil the broth

  Too many persons involved in managing an activity can ruin it, as in Without a conductor, every player had an idea for how the music should go—too many cooks spoil the broth. This expression alludes to each of many cooks adding something to a soup, which finally tastes awful. It was already considered a proverb in 1575 (by George Gascoigne in The Life of P. Care).

Too many cooks spoil the broth

Cultural  

1. When too many people work together on a project, the result is inferior.

---

too many cooks spoil the broth Idioms  

1. Too many persons involved in managing an activity can ruin it, as in Without a conductor, every player had an idea for how the music should go—too many cooks spoil the broth. This expression alludes to each of many cooks adding something to a soup, which finally tastes awful. It was already considered a proverb in 1575 (by George Gascoigne in The Life of P. Care).

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Too many cooks spoil the broth too many cooks spoil the broth

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and too many celebrities numb our faculty of wonder.

From Without Prejudice by Israel Zangwill

Too many cooks spoil the broth, old chap!”

From With Rifle and Bayonet A Story of the Boer War by F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton

Too many cooks spoil the broth, you know.

From Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines The German Spy's Secret by Charles Amory Beach

Here Morinski shakes his black curly head, says, "Too many cooks spoil the broth," and asks, "Why did you not stay longer with one teacher?"

From Erlach Court by Ossip Schubin

Tro da kuiristoj malbonigas la buljonon = Too many cooks spoil the broth.

From The International Auxiliary Language Esperanto Grammar and Commentary by George Cox

But with a story-heavy game like this, too many cooks spoil the broth, as they say, so slow and steady it was.

From The Verge ● Jul. 27, 2021

Q: In English, we say too many cooks spoil the broth.

From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2016

When do too many cooks spoil the broth?

From Forbes ● Jan. 16, 2012

We sometimes hear arguments against collaborating, but in our experience the old adage that too many cooks spoil the broth doesn't hold.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 6, 2011

Experience has taught us that "too many cooks spoil the broth" even in the may-fly season.

From A Cotswold Village by J. Arthur Gibbs