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culinary disaster

culinary disaster

5.0
A very bad cooking mistake that makes food not good to eat
  • noun
  • /ˈkʌlɪnɛri dɪˈzæstər/
translation icon : desastre culinario
  • The charity event turned into a culinary disaster when the main course was burnt and inedible.

Examples

  • "Hope it's better than her last culinary disaster," Frank thought as he leaned out the door after them.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Doctors here say the official cause of death is... heart failure due to the mayor's recent culinary disaster.

  • Surprisingly, there have been no culinary disasters over the years, Massabny said.

    Blog text (7)
  • A culinary disaster.

  • Everyone laughed at the culinary disaster that occurred when she forgot to add sugar to the cake batter.

  • After trying to make a fancy dinner, he realized it was a complete culinary disaster when the sauce curdled.

Synonyms

disaster
vsculinary disaster
1.0

A sudden event that causes great damage, loss, or failure

focuses on failure in cooking that ruins taste or makes food inedible
complete and utter disaster
vsculinary disaster
1 3.7

A situation that is a total failure causing big problems

is a failure specific to cooking that leaves food inedible or unappetizing
soup sandwich
vsculinary disaster
  • Slang
9.7

A situation that is very messy and a complete disaster

is similar but limited to bad cooking that makes food unpleasant to eat

How Bad

culinary disaster
5.0
miscue
4 7.7

Surface Forms

Morphology

culinary + disaster

The noun phrase is transparently built from 'culinary' (relating to cooking) + 'disaster' (a major failure), so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer it means a serious cooking failure. The composition follows a straightforward modifier+noun pattern and has clear cross-linguistic equivalents, making the overall sense predictable from the parts.

Etymology

The phrase culinary disaster combines culinary, meaning 'cooking', and disaster, meaning a 'big mistake' or 'mess', and paints a clear picture of a kitchen where a dish is burned, spoiled, or ruined. That's why it means 'a severe failure in cooking'.