If you haven’t been dropped off in the woods and led down a dark path for a dinner party, you are behind. Enter Margot Laporte, the event designer behind some of the most talked-about transformations on our pages, from a harvest wedding staged in a golden field to a tennis court reworked into a dinner setting. Her ongoing project, Het Diner, is where that curiosity really runs wild.
Each edition is built around a place that sets the tone from the outset (ice rinks, forests, open land) paired with a menu by Catering Cachette that responds to the setting. Her Heritage Season edition sends guests into the outdoors with Solognac wellies, firelight, sound cues, crunchy leaves, and a sequence of moments that unfold like chapters, before anyone ever sits down to eat.
CAMP VR is for people who romanticize countryside weekends even if they’ve never held a rifle. Blackwatch tartan. Waxed jackets. Smoke clinging to cableknits. Cabins where the light is low, the fire is doing most of the work, and everyone comes together over mulled wine and shared stories. It’s countryside, dipped in J.Crew, translated for hosts who care more about how a night feels than how it photographs. It’s exactly the register Het Diner’s Heritage Season edition operates in.
Photography by Kaat DM
A Private Dinner (With a Scenic Route)
Guests arrived by car and were immediately handed rain boots, swapping footwear before moving any further. From there, they were shuttled to the edge of the property and directed down a narrow forest road lined with candles and torchlight. Horns sounded as the group approached the site. A first drink was served from hip flasks beneath an open tent in the woods, marking the start of the evening’s progression.
They then gathered inside a wooden tipi for first bites, prepared over an open fire by Catering Cachette, with everyone seated around the flames. Clay pigeon shooting followed before the group moved indoors for dinner. Inside the house, the entire floor was covered with fallen leaves, with additional foliage suspended from the ceiling. The final course was a highly gastronomic, seated meal, anchoring the night after its outdoor sequence and bringing the experience to a close.
Gastronomy in Its Natural Habitat
The menu followed the terrain, not the other way around. Fire, smoke, game, shellfish, winter vegetables; each course felt akin to something you’d plausibly eat in this landscape, only sharpened and elevated by technique. Chicken skin crackers arrived like a dare. Smoked coquilles were served in their shells inside the tipi, then hare pâté shaped unmistakably like its namesake, lacquered eel with dashi and fennel, beetroot warmed by smoking herbs, and a procession of roasted winter vegetables pulled straight from the season.
Even dessert leaned into the logic of the setting: chocolate, caramel, peanut, and a cigar-shaped finale that nodded to post-hunt ritual. The takeaway for hosts is simple and often overlooked: food and atmosphere work best when they speak the same language. Let the environment inform what you serve. Cook where guests can see it, use what’s in season, lean into warmth and comfort when temperatures drop, and remember that a well-chosen ingredient can do as much for the mood as any centerpiece ever could.
A Good Venue Does Half the Hosting
For Laporte, the success of an outdoor dinner starts well before menus or seating charts enter the conversation. She looks first for venues that offer variety and flow; places with multiple spaces that allow an evening to move naturally from one setting to the next, from covered outdoor areas to fire-lit interiors and back again. Weather contingencies matter, too, but they don’t need to disrupt the aesthetic; thoughtful coverings, matched to the surroundings, can preserve both comfort and atmosphere.
*Pro-tip: If you would like to host your own Heritage themed Dinner Party, our CAMP VR landing page has all the best spots to park your people (and your campfire.)
Take On Your Own Camp VR-Approved Dinner Party
Margot’s Heritage Season dinner didn’t just inspire this story, it set the brief: gatherings that make sense for the season, the setting, and the people around the table. CAMP VR picks up that thread and runs with it, pairing that same outdoors-first energy with venues that already know how to host fireside welcome dinners, lakeside feasts, camp-style brand takeovers, and weekend-long celebrations built around food and place. Use this as your shortcut: borrow the idea, steal the mood, pick the venue, and plan something worth bundling up for this season.
🔥 A Proper Camp Send-Off
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Your guide to turning fire season into fine dining. Think heritage flannel meets Baccarat sparkle, and cabins that make s’mores feel like a Michelin moment.
