I couldn’t possibly finish my ‘What’s Cooking in the Kitchen’ series without sharing some cooking idioms with you! So here are some idioms (and phrasal verbs) that are often used in General and Business English.
如果不同你分享一些同烹饪相关的习语,我不大可能完成我的“厨房里面在忙什么呢”丛书。所以下面有一些普通英语和商务英语中常常使用的习语(和短语动词)。

1. To cook the books – to record false information in the accounts of an organisation.
1. To cook the books — 在一个组织的账户上面记录错误或者假的信息。
When the company went bankrupt, it was discovered that one of the directors had been cooking the books for years.在公司破产的时候才发现一个董事会成员一直做假账做了好多年。

2. To go from/get/jump out of the frying pan into the fire – to go from a bad situation to a worse one.
2. To go from/get/jump out of the frying pan into the fire — 逃脱小难又遭大难。

She had always had problems with her Sales Manager, so was relieved when he was sacked. However, she went from the frying pan nto the fire with the new Sales Manager!
她跟销售经理之间一直矛盾重重,所以当他被解雇后她觉得如释重负。然而,当她遇到新的销售经理时她觉得自己才脱龙潭又入虎穴。

3. Too many cooks spoil the broth – too many people managing a job can actually create more problems
3. Too many cooks spoil the broth —人多反误事。

Look, we need to decide once and for all who is managing this project because we have a situation of too many cooks spoiling the broth at the moment.
看,我们需要彻底地决定谁管理这个项目,因为这会我们处于一种人多反误事的境况。

4.To Cook Something Up – to organise something
4. To Cook Something Up — 组织事情

Leave the organisational details of the party to me. I will cook something up and it will be fantastic. You’ll see.
把聚会的组织细节留给我吧。我会组织一切,绝对做到最好,你等着看吧。

5. To grill someone -to question someone without stopping
5. To grill someone — 不停地质问某人

The police grilled the suspect for seven hours and still couldn’t get a confession out of him.
这个警察拷问嫌疑人七个小时,但是仍然不能让他认罪。

6. To boil over (phrasal verb) – when someone cannot control their anger and start to argue or fight
6. To boil over(动词短语) — 当一些人不能控制他们的愤怒从而开始争吵或是打架

The situation was so tense in the boardroom that people’s tempers were boiling over by the end of the meeting.
会议室的气氛如此紧张,在会议的结尾大家似乎要吵起来了。

7. To simmer down (phrasal verb) – to become calm
7. To simmer down(短语动词)— 冷静下来

Hey, simmer down and relax. Getting angry won’t change things.
嘿.冷静下来放松。生气改变不了任何事情。

8. To Simmer with rage/anger – to be filled with negative emotions like rage and anger
8. To simmer with rage/anger — 像愤怒和生气一样充满负面情绪

Susan simmered with rage when she saw the disaster the builders had caused to the extension
当苏珊看到建筑者们引起的延展性的灾难时,气不打一处来。

9. To stew(v) or to be in a stew(noun) – to be mentally agitated
9. To stew or to be in a stew — 使其处于烦恼中

After the interrogation, the police let Tom stew for a few hours before releasing him.审问过后,警察在释放汤姆之前,让他烦恼了一会。

10. Half-baked ideas (informal) – ideas that have not been thought out enough
10. Half-baked ideas(非正式)— 未经过深思熟虑想出来的方法

James is always coming to me with his half-baked ideas on how we can increase sales. He is so annoying.
詹姆斯总是带着很不成熟的想法来找我说如何增加销售额,他真是烦人。