Fat Duck Melbourne ballot entrants learn their fate

It was good news for 14,000 fans of Heston Blumenthal and bad news for a whole lot more as those who entered an online ballot for a chance to eat at the lauded chef's temporary Fat Duck restaurant in Melbourne learned their fate on Monday and Tuesday.

With the 50-seater restaurant (plus a four-person chef's table) only able to accommodate that figure, most of the many thousands of people who hoped to get a seat missed out on their chance to experience Sounds of the Sea and other iconic Blumenthal dishes, when he relocates his restaurant to Crown in February.

A Crown spokeswoman said there were nearly 90,000 applications in the online ballot, which ran from October 8 to October 26.

"Each of the 89,179 entries booked a table comprising anything from 1 to 6 guests per booking," spokeswoman Jodi Crocker told goodfood.com.au.

Those who were unsuccessful have been given the option of going on a waiting list, and will have preference for a table at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, which will replace Fat Duck when it closes after a six-month run.

For some Blumenthal fans such as Hobart's Laura Curtain, it was a case of bad luck followed by good luck. The 26-year-old applied twice for a table at Fat Duck.

"I applied once under my own name and once under my partner's name," Curtain told goodfood.com.au on Tuesday. "At 6pm I got an email from Crown saying I had missed out on a table for two, but at 7pm my partner forwarded me an email saying we'd got a table for four."

The problem then became deciding which of their friends would also get to experience Blumenthal's famed Snail Porridge, along with 11-14 other courses over four hours.

Blumenthal's promise of "a multi-sensory journey of history, nostalgia, emotion and memory" obviously struck a chord with Australia's dining public, with tens of thousands of people willing to fork out a minimum of $525 (extra for drinks) before even taking a seat.

Many unsuccessful applicants turned to social media to vent their frustrations. But they received little sympathy from others on Twitter and Instagram, with this post from @LMildwater typical of many responses: "Poor ppl who missed out on $500meal #first world problems.I volunteer at food charity so this is just sad."

Other Fat Duck fans were philosophical, such as Twitter user @alicabdd who missed out. "I'm sad I didn't win the ballot but happy I can spend the money on other things!"

Those who were successful in their application to Crown to eat at Fat Duck Melbourne will have to pay for their table in full, within the next four weeks, to confirm their reservation.

For Laura Curtain this means transferring $2100 but she's unfazed.

"It's food theatre. [I] feel the whole experience will feel out-of-this-world amazing. It's about the creativity and thought [Blumenthal] puts into every single dish."

She and two Tasmanian friends plus her Melbourne-based partner will make a weekend of it next July, and probably stay at Crown so they can waddle back to their lodgings after their marathon dinner effort.

Crown's spokeswoman said this afternoon that all ballot entrants - successful and unsuccessful - had been notified, but many hopefuls were still in suspense and were venting their frustration on Twitter late on Tuesday.

"The nothing is killing me," posted @TragicDag, while another Twitter user said neither her family members nor friends had heard anything at 1.40pm today.

Crown said there were several reasons which could explain why some people had not received an email, including a misspelt email address on their entry form or the email going to the junk folder of their inbox, or their inbox being full at the time the Fat Duck email was sent.

Jodi Crocker from Crown also said people who entered the online ballot more than once to increase their chances (but who used the same email address) were only counted once.

Correction: The original version of this story listed the number of people to dine at Fat Duck at 16,000. The updated figure from Crown is 14,000. This has been changed in the piece.