Steve Parsons/PA

The 2012 Michelin star awards were leaked a week early yesterday, revealing 16 restaurants given their first British star.

Despite the leak being attributed to a technical glitch on the Michelin website, murmurs in the restaurant industry suspect it was part of a deliberate PR stunt.

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The awards were swiftly removed from the website yesterday but not before many eagle-eyed food writers and bloggers spotted the winners.

Sketch in London won a second star, as did Simon Rogan's L'Enclume, in Cartmel, Cumbria and Michael Wignall at the Latymer, in Bagshot, Surrey.

Winners of a single star include Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head Pub in Bray; Paul Ainsworth at Number 6 (Padstow); Bath Priory (Bath); Raby Hunt (near Darlington); Tristan (Horsham); Alimentum (Cambridge); Thackeray's (Kent); The Red Lion (Wiltshire).

In London, single stars were awards to Alyn Williams at the Westbury, Dabbous, Medlar, Hedone, Launceston Place, Launceston Place, St. John Soho, Tom Aikins and Trishna.

The U.K's four three-star restaurants - Fat Duck, Waterside Inn, Alain Ducasse and Gordon Ramsay - kept their top rating.

Star status
The Michelin Guide is the oldest and best-known hotel and restaurant guide in Europe, each year awarding one, two or three stars to restaurants of exceptional quality. Therefore Michelin stars are much coveted in the restaurant industry and the recognition is an ultimate career goal for many top chefs.

Such is the high profile of the awards that this the third time in five years that they have been leaked online prior to official announcement.

In 2009, the press release appeared on a closed restaurant discussion site five days before schedule. In 2010, Amazon mistakenly sent out a copy of the guide to a restaurant prior to official publication.

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