Fat Duck Ballot Hijacked by Scalpers

When Heston Blumenthal announced that Fat Duck was coming to Melbourne for six months in 2015, he was overwhelmed with interest at the rate of 40,000 requests within the first few days. So, to make matters manageable and, he hoped, fair, he set up a ballot. Of the 89,000 entries received, only 14,000 were lucky enough to win a spot. But, as it turns out, luck wasn’t the only factor in determining success.

In an exclusive published today, Fairfax Media's Good Food has revealed that the Fat Duck ballot was hijacked by fat cat corporate scalpers. According to the report, three groups are involved.

The first is a trio of financial professionals, based in Collins Street, Melbourne. Apparently they employed an IT expert to cook up a computer programme that enabled them to apply as many times as they liked. "We looked at the source code for the booking site and noted that it didn’t record IP address, just email address and phone details," Fairfax was told. "From that moment we realised it was going to be pretty easy to book multiple tables." After putting in 800 applications, they managed to score more than fifty tables, which they’re planning on giving away and selling.

The report states that a second group used a similar strategy to bag just over forty tables. They're intending to sell places at $500 a head (that’s on top of the Fat Duck’s $525). And Fairfax Media also believes that 'a third party, which brings in gambling tourists from Asia' has also failed to play fair.

Crown Resorts certainly aren't happy about the whole affair. They've got their legal team on the job, trying to overturn some of the counterfeit bookings. Executive general manager of hotels, food and beverage, Peter Crinis, told Fairfax, "Crown Melbourne is committed to upholding the integrity of the ballot process and has flagged a small number of reservations for further investigation. The on-selling of reservations is prohibited by the ballot terms and conditions and internal measures have been put in place to ensure this process remains fair and equitable for all Fat Duck diners." The restaurant does have the power to cancel reservations but, at the end of the day, the scalpers don’t seem to have broken any particular laws.

MEANWHILE, AT GORDON RAMSAY'S NEW DIGS...

In other bad news for the high-end dining scene, Gordon Ramsay's brand new restaurant, Heddon Street Kitchen, had its opening night undermined by an unknown prankster, who made 100 or so fake reservations. Even though the 140-strong establishment was 'booked out', two-thirds of tables remained empty. "I think there’s all that level of envy," Ramsay said on the Jonathan Ross Show. "Saturday was our first big day; we had 140 on the books and we had a 100 no show. So someone would have been on a computer... It's bad spirit. You see the staff and they are down and frustrated. I was there to pick them up and make sure we stay focused... Now we’re going to reconfirm every table."

Via Good Food.