Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal explaining how his Fat Duck restaurant is going to work in Melbourne

FOOD lovers are incensed that scalpers have gamed the system to exclude everyday diners from scoring a coveted booking at Heston Blumenthal’s high-end restaurant The Fat Duck.

It has been revealed that a trio of financial professionals hired an Asia-based IT expert to scam the online booking system of the exclusive Melbourne eatery to make more than 100 reservations, Good Food reports.

They are now giving the bookings, which are the hottest tickets in town, to their clients or selling them to colleagues.

RELATED: Ballot results for The Fat Duck Melbourne released

Demand for a table at the restaurant, which is relocating to Melbourne’s Crown Resort for six months from February, has been so high that diners were asked to enter an online ballot to score a reservation.

The IT expert was able to exploit the ballot to book multiple tables under fake names.

Potential diner Wendy Hutchison, of Sydney, was among the thousands who were left disappointed when they missed out on a table. She said it was “absolutely unfair” that these few people had managed to scam the system.

“That’s disgusting,” she told news.com.au. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience (but) that wipes it out for the average Joe Blow, like me. That’s horrible.”

The Fat Duck is a Michelin-starred restaurant that has enjoyed nine years on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

The Melbourne spin-off of the UK favourite will offer a 15-course meal for $525 (excluding drinks), and will feature Blumenthal’s iconic dishes such as Sound of the Sea, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and Snail Porridge.

Some Australians are so desperate for a table that they have offered up to $1000 on sites such as Gumtree to score a seat.

The IT expert realised that the booking system didn’t record IP addresses, so he was able to book multiple tables with phony names, Good Food reports.

The scammers submitted more than 800 applications and secured 50 bookings.

Another group managed to score 40 tables using similar methods.

Meanwhile, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay says his new restaurant in London has been sabotaged by a rival.

Ramsay told The Jonathon Ross Show that an envious competitor made 100 fake online bookings for the opening night of his 140-capacity restaurant Heddon Street Kitchen, and then failed to show up.

“Yep, sabotage. It’s bad spirit and 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,” Ramsay said.

News.com.au has approached Crown for comment.