too many cooks in the kitchen



too many cooks in the kitchen

Too many people are trying to control, influence, or work on something, with the quality of the final product suffering as a result. (A variation of the more common phrase, "Too many cooks spoil the broth/stew/soup.") A: "The more that goes wrong with this project, the more people get involved. Now we've got my boss, his boss, the assistant manager, a freelance consultant, and the head of IT all involved, and it's turning into a complete disaster!" B: "It sounds to me like there are too many cooks in the kitchen."
See also: cook, kitchen, many

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
JemJEMEnglish
Waddell[wɔ'del]
Waite[weit]
Thorvald-Swedish, Norwegian, Danish
Jacintohah-THEEN-to (Spanish), hah-SEEN-to (Latin American Spanish)Spanish, Portuguese
LallieLAL-eeEnglish (Rare)