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Letter Jam
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Too Many Cooks
2022
Rules assistance for Too Many Cooks
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 2–6 players
- 20 min
- 10+
Rules assistant for Too Many Cooks
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Too Many Cooks is a board game released in 2022 for 2–6 players, 20 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Jarrah Bloomfield and its main mechanics are Cooperative Game and Communication Limits.
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About the game
Too Many Cooks is a co-operative hidden information card game about fussy chefs cooking soups together. It is played in 3 rounds of 5 minutes. You can play in one of 3 difficulty settings; easy, moderate & hard, or you can play through all of them in an hour long session. You are chefs working together on a delicious soup that satisfies shared culinary tastes. The catch is, each chef has secret personal tastes which must also be sated! The game starts with a soup base of 16 vegetable card ingredients laid out on the table. Rising to the challenge, players take it in turns to change or move the soup ingredients to satisfy as many tastes as possible before the time runs out. On your turn you may either: Change just one aspect of a card - ie its vegetable or colour, by swapping it out for a spare card. or Rotate a row or column of vegetables 1 card in either direction. or Pass - if your personal tastes and all shared tastes are satisfied. Of course changes to the soup may upset or satisfy other chef’s secret taste sensibilities too! So, players vocalise their satisfaction or dissatisfaction and rotate their taste cards in hand to indicate how happy or unhappy they are after each change to the soup. But they cannot say exactly why. Eg “Ewwww, that’s disgusting!” is fine, but not “Ewww, I hate mushrooms!” Watch what other chefs seem to be working towards, and try to make changes that make everyone as happy as possible. Play fast to get your soup kitchen up to a 5 star rating over 3 rounds at your chosen difficulty level. Each of the 3 rounds gets a little harder starting with 7 tastes to solve, moving on to 9, and ending at 11 tastes divided between the players as secret personal tastes (2 each max, or 3 each in the 2 player game) with leftovers placed face up as shared tastes all chefs can work towards together. —description from the publisher
Categories
Mechanics
Designers
Publishers
- Good Games Publishing
Questions and answers
Too Many Cooks supports 2–6 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Too Many Cooks is 20 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Too Many Cooks for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Too Many Cooks belongs to these categories: Card Game, Party Game, and Deduction. Its main mechanics are Cooperative Game and Communication Limits. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Too Many Cooks are: Jarrah Bloomfield. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Too Many Cooks as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.