Despite its high-roller price tag (about $475 USD) per diner, reservations for chef Heston Blumenthal's hotly anticipated Fat Duck pop-up in Melbourne, Australia were a hot ticket when they went online in October of last year. Now, Australia's GoodFood reports the chef and his team are cracking down on those who are re-selling their coveted reservations online, sometimes for upwards of $1,000 apiece. A representative for Crown, the hotel that will serve as Fat Duck's Melbourne home, says attempts to sell confirmed reservations have popped up on eBay and Australian classified ads website Gumtree. According to the rep, the reservations were purchased with the disclaimer that they are "non-transferable," and that "those considering to purchase tables using a method that challenges these guidelines may be at risk of having the reservation cancelled."
Reservations to Fat Duck Melbourne were doled out as part of a lottery system: Guests interested in a reservation had to pre-register to a chance to "win" their seat, then pre-purchased tickets if they were one of the 16,000 lucky winners. GoodFood reported the scarce seats led to some diners "scamming" the reservation systems with computer programs — some IT-competent diners allegedly scored up to 100 reservations using nefarious means. Fat Duck pops up in Melbourne from February 3, 2015 to August 15, 2015.