too many cooks
Broth-spoiling surplus
Too many cooks is short for the proverb "too many cooks spoil the broth"—the idea that when too many people try to control a project, the result suffers.
The phrase diagnoses dysfunction: We had too many cooks on that committee and nothing got done.
It implies that leadership or creative work benefits from fewer hands, not more.
- spoilDamage or overindulge
- brothClear simmered meat liquid
- chaosComplete disorder and confusion
- kitchenFood preparation room
- crowdedFilled beyond comfort
committee · design by committee · collaboration · mess · confusion · mixed signals · overthink · meddling · bureaucracy · group think · interference · disaster · opinions · clash · power struggle · overwhelm · micromanage · tangled
- food idiomspiece of cake, bread winner, low-hanging fruit, cool as a cucumber, bad egg
- labor idiomsnose to the grindstone, burning the midnight oil, pull your weight, crunch time, work like a dog
- delegation phrasesdelegate, pass the buck, hand off, farm out, assign
- meddlingmeddle, meddler, butt in, horn in, intrude
too many cooksdelegation
Transferring responsibility downward
sole proprietorship · one-man show · hierarchy · top-down management · buck stops here
too many cooksskeleton crew
Minimum workers needed
understaffed · shorthanded · one-man band · bare bones · running on empty
many, cook, cooks, cooked, cooking, cooker, cookery, cookbook, overcook