Topics › Food idioms

Food idioms in English

15 phrases from the lesson “What's Cooking?”.

• too many cooks spoil the brothsaid when too many people trying to manage the same task causes problems
• spill the beansto reveal a secret, often accidentally
• in a nutshellin a few words; to summarize briefly
• have a lot on your plateto have a lot of things to deal with at once
• out of the frying pan into the fireto go from a bad situation into an even worse one
• have your cake and eat it (too)to want both of two things that can't really go together
• bring home the baconto earn the money that supports a family
• sell like hot cakesto sell very quickly, because it's very popular
• not be someone's cup of teato not be something someone particularly likes or enjoys
• put all your eggs in one basketto risk everything on a single plan or option
• the proof is in the puddingthe real value of something can only be judged by trying it
• not someone's cup of teanot something a person particularly likes or enjoys
• take something with a pinch of saltto not fully believe something; to stay a little skeptical
• egg someone onto encourage someone to do something, often reckless
• butter someone upto flatter someone, usually because you want something from them