To tip or not to tip?

The Food Chain

BBC

Arts, Society & Culture, Food

4.7 • 545 Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ruth Alexander explores the art and etiquette of tipping and how it varies around the world.

She hears from staff and customers in countries where tipping is essential and in places where it can be taken as an insult.

Ruth also talks to servers and bartenders about what your gratuity means to them and how tipping can sometimes bring out the best and worst in their customers.

Producer: Lexy O’Connor and Rumella Dasgupta

Sound mixing: Hal Haines

Image: A jar full of coins and notes has the word “tips” written on it. It floats on a red background. Credit: Nikola Stojadinovic / Getty

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.
0:05.6	Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might like our podcast too.
0:12.1	You might. You might. It is called Sightraught with me Nick Grimshaw.
0:15.2	And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music.
0:18.2	All the news, all the cultural happenings in the UK and beyond.
0:22.2	And great guests.
0:23.3	And it's on BBC Sounds.
0:24.7	Yes, where you can also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and live radio.
0:29.9	Everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind.
0:34.5	But obviously start with our podcast, sidetrack.
0:36.3	Obviously.
0:36.7	Obviously.
0:38.2	So if you like music, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:43.4	Hello and welcome to the food chain from the BBC World Service with me, Ruth Alexander.
0:49.6	While making last week's episode about what it's like to be a server, tipping came up, and one of the guests, Fred Syriax,
0:57.1	a French matri-D-turned-TV presenter, made this point.
1:01.3	I think there's so much to say about tips and service charge
1:04.2	that we could have an episode just about that.
1:06.8	So I'm not going to even go there and tell you my view there because he's going to take the whole podcast.
1:13.2	We are actually thinking of doing an episode on that. Fred, great mind.
1:16.5	Yeah, this is one on its own.
1:19.8	So here it is, a whole episode about tipping.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.