So much for the gravy train! Outcry in the BBC Broadcasting House canteen as workers limit staff to just SIX chips each
- BBC staff in uproar after they are given no more than six chips each in canteen
- Servers were allegedly instructed to ‘individually count out six chips per person’
- It appears beleaguered canteen staff in London gave up on the paltry servings
Hungry BBC workers had the frites of their lives when canteen workers limited them to just six chips each.
One said there was an outcry in the cafe at Broadcasting House after servers told disappointed diners they’d had their chips – and wouldn’t get any more.
Dom Stirling, a Radio 1 and Asian Network producer, tweeted: ‘Just in case you thought the BBC was a glamorous place to work, there is uproar in the canteen as the ‘six-chip rule’ is introduced… in which servers are instructed to individually count out six chips per person. I wish this was a joke.’
One said there was an outcry in the cafe at Broadcasting House after servers told disappointed diners they’d had their chips – and wouldn’t get any more. Eventually, it appears that beleaguered canteen staff in London gave up on the paltry potato servings
A BBC spokesman denied that its London restaurant staff were being stingy, adding: ‘There’s something a little fishy about this story as there is definitely no six-chip rule.’
However, BBC journalists confirmed last night that the chips were down. Daniel Sandford, a home affairs correspondent for BBC News, tweeted: ‘I was given six at 12.10pm.’
Arif Ansari, head of news for the BBC Asian Network, posted a photograph on Twitter of six chunky chips on his plate.
He said: ‘New rules in the BBC canteen limit the number of chips to six!
‘The staff seemed shocked that I didn’t go with the unlimited couscous instead.’ The row even led to some good-natured bragging from staff at the BBC’s base in Salford, MediaCityUK.
One shared a photograph of his plate of food and wrote: ‘Not showing off or anything but I’ve been given at least 15 up here in Salford…’
However, Tom Green, assistant editor for BBC Radio 5 Live at MediaCityUK, said there was a catch, explaining: ‘In Salford you’re allowed as many chips as will fit in a small bowl (about the size of a finger bowl).
‘But the chips are massive, so your mileage varies depending on whether some big potato boi lodges width-wise and pushes out lots of his chippy brethren. It’s a crapshoot.’
Eventually, it appears that beleaguered canteen staff in London gave up on the paltry potato servings.
A BBC spokesman denied that its London restaurant staff were being stingy, adding: ‘There’s something a little fishy about this story as there is definitely no six-chip rule’
BBC News producer Callum May tweeted: ‘UPDATE – just been told by a canteen source (as I was served a total of 14 chips) that the six-chip rule has been ‘relaxed’.’
The BBC’s apparent attempt to ration chips echoes a furore at Wimbledon this summer when fans complained about miserly portions at the All-England Club’s Baseline Grill.
One asked for more after paying £18.10 for burger and chips.
The unimpressed customer said: ‘I was given about 20 to 25 fries in this tiny bucket and asked if that was all I would be getting. But the waitress just told me that was all she was allowed to give me.
‘She seemed embarrassed. It was a measly portion.’