Learn Russian: Он хотел приготовить вкусный ужин, но перестарался и пережарил мясо. - He wanted to cook a delicious dinner, but overdid it and overcooked the meat.

In both перестарался and пережарил, the prefix пере- indicates that an action was done to excess. It also turns the imperfective base verbs into perfective verbs, meaning the excessive action is viewed as a completed result.

What is the base verb for перестарался, and how does that explain its meaning?

The base verb is стараться, which means to try hard or to make an effort. When you add the excess prefix пере-, it literally means to try too hard. This is the standard Russian way to express that someone overdid something or went too far while trying to do a good job.

The English translation says overcooked, but doesn't жарить mean to fry?

Yes, жарить means to fry, roast, or grill. In Russian, cooking meat in a pan or oven is almost always described with жарить. Therefore, пережарить is the natural way to say overcooked for this specific cooking method. If he had overcooked a boiled dish like pasta or soup, he would have used переварить instead.

Why is the perfective verb приготовить used after the imperfective хотел?

The verb хотел describes an ongoing state in the past (he was wanting). However, the thing he wanted to do was to successfully complete a single, specific dinner. Because the goal was a finished result, we use the perfective infinitive приготовить.