Ice Ice Baby: How to Host a Snow Table Dinner (and the Alpine Pros Doing It Best)
As experiential dining continues to move outdoors, winter has emerged as its most unlikely frontier. We’re talking “snow dining tables”, hand-carved from ice and powder, blur the line between architecture, landscape, and meal, offering a fleeting form of luxury that exists only as long as the temperature allows. Skip the crowded après-ski lodges, and make your way to the most exclusive dining venues of the season. Like many of the venues in our CAMP VR collection, snow tables treat cold weather as part of the design brief.
Forget ice buckets altogether. At a snow table, the landscape does the work for you, chilling bottles of Moët & Chandon directly into the drift while guests settle into fur-lined benches carved from the same terrain. These hand-built tables in the Alps turn winter itself into both setting and service.This is winter dining at its most literal and luxurious. This guide was shaped in conversation with the alpine professionals behind Fondue Sauvage and Tavolata, two teams working at the forefront of snow-table dining in the Alps, with insight from Grace Rocoffort de Vinnière and Léonore Aellen, co-founders of Fondue Sauvage, and Davide Grampa of the Nest Italy / Tavolata Studio team. Though distinct in execution, both approaches position snow as the architecture, the landscape as the experience, and the meal as the unifying anchor.
Before you go out and start swinging a shovel, check how breezy it is. You want a spot that’s well protected from the wind. Choose a spot by a natural tree line, a sturdy rock face, or the lee side of your home. Wind is the fastest way to derail the evening.
Keep in mind that a breeze doesn’t just chill your guests, it creates a “wind tunnel effect” across the table that can extinguish candles and cool your food in seconds. If a natural windbreak isn’t available, consider building a decorative snow wall on the windward side of your dining area to create a cozy, sunken lounge feel.
Whatever you do, don’t build your snow dining table on fluffy, fresh powder. That’s a rookie mistake. If you try, your table will have the structural integrity of a marshmallow.
The Move: About a day before your dinner party, put on your snowshoes and stomp down the entire area. This is called sintering. It lets the snow crystals bond together into a rock-solid block that can actually handle a heavy le Creuset pot. It’s crucial that you don’t miss this step! For the best results, give the snow at least 24 hours to “set” after the stomp.
Don’t use your plastic backyard shovel to craft your snow table. If you want those razor-sharp, Instagram-ready edges, you’ll need a pro kit. A snow saw is the secret weapon to create the snow-table of your dreams. Use it to craft those perfectly square, architectural corners. Aim for a table height of 75cm and seats at 45cm.
Bring a spirit level out with you to ensure the tabletop is perfectly flat. Nothing ruins a luxury aesthetic faster than a sliding wine glass. Once the table is carved, use a flat-bladed spade to shave the sides until they are smooth.
The “Leg Room” Rule: Dig your footwells super deep! Your guests should be able to sit with their legs at a 90-degree angle. If their knees are touching their chins, they aren't dining in luxury, they’re just uncomfortable.
To keep your snow dining table from turning into a pile of slushy mess the moment a hot dish touches it, you’ll always need to seal the deal.
The Hack: Take a spray bottle and fill it up with cold water. Lightly mist the surface of your carved table. As it freezes, it will create a diamond-hard ice glaze. Not only does this protect the table, but it also catches the candlelight for a stunning shimmer that looks like pure magic.
Since the color scheme of your snow dining table is basically white on white, you’ll need different textures to make it pop.
Consider a “frozen centerpiece” to lean into the theme. You can freeze holly berries, pine sprigs, or even orange slices into large blocks of ice to place down the center of the table.
Never Sit Directly on the Snow: Seriously. Layer faux reindeer hides or thick rugs on the benches. They look incredibly luxurious and are the best natural insulators to keep everyone’s backside warm and oh-so-toasty.
The Inner Glow: Carve small “cubbies” into the base of the table and pace battery-operated LED tea lights. The snow will act as a natural diffuser, making the entire table glow from the inside out like a giant lantern. Brace yourself as your guests gasp in awe!
When it’s freezing temperatures, your food and drink offerings need to be comforting and top-notch. Temperature management is your biggest challenge. Pre-warm your stoneware in a low oven before bringing it outside, and use insulated copper mugs for drinks to keep them from hitting freezing point. For wine, a heavy red is best, but keep the bottle in a slightly insulated sleeve.
The Dishes: Ditch the thin ceramic plates, they’ll be ice-cold in minutes. Instead, serve the food in cast iron pans, heavy stoneware, or thick wooden platters that hold the heat.
The “Oshibori” Moment: Welcome your guests with steaming hot towels infused with eucalyptus or cedarwood. It’s a simple 30-second luxury that warms their hands and sets the tone for a luxurious night under the stars.
The Menu: We recommend serving comfort food and drinks such as bubbly cheese, heart broths, fluffy breads and plenty of room-temperature red wine for your snow table dining experience. Your guests will remember the experience for years to come!
The Gold Standard: How the Pros Do It - If you’re looking for inspiration for your DIY build, look no further than the pioneers of the trend in the Swiss and Italian Alps.
Food: Catered by Fondue Sauvage
Snow-table dining is moving past “cute idea” and into full-on produced hosting, largely because Fondue Sauvage, Switzerland and Tavolata, Italy are treating snow like a design material and dinner like an event worth traveling for. Fondue Sauvage leans into the fantasy with bespoke outdoor experiences in Crans-Montana that you commission directly, then they handle the rest, from the setting to the pacing, so the host move becomes simply choosing your people and showing up; they take inquiries via DM, which keeps it intimate and made-to-order.
Tavolata comes at it from the opposite angle: they’re a culinary studio that does private events for brands and groups, but they also operate a limited-guest “sharing table” / supper-club format that makes the table itself a social engine, not just furniture. And for snow tables specifically, Tavolata explicitly offers private snow table bookings via email (positioned as available worldwide), which is a helpful, practical breadcrumb for anyone reading this and thinking, “How do I actually do this?” In other words: if your version of winter hosting is more “I’ll curate the guest list and the tablescape” than “I’ll carve the architecture,” these two are the proof that snow-table dinners can be equal parts decoration, logistics, and togetherness, which brings us to how each one executes the trend in its own signature way.
Fondue Sauvage operates more like an alpine operation than a restaurant. Established by Grace Rocoffort de Vinnière and Léonore Aellen, a powerhouse duo based in Switzerland with a background in marketing and luxury hospitality, Fondue Sauvage offers a private dining experience atop a table etched directly into the snow boasting a chic Swiss-style design.
The Vibe: Fondue Sauvage’s dining experience is all about mystery and magic. Part of the appeal is the shared unknown: no one knows the location until the day before. You’ll hike, ski, or gondola your way to a secret spot where a snow table has been hand-carved just for you. It’s intimate, evanescent, and wildly beautiful.
They also offer additional enhancements such as a sunset apéro, DJ, guided snowshoe or backcountry skiing approach to the event, Cor des Alpes performance, ice sculpture centerpieces, a pop-up wine bar, a professional photographer or drone session, and curated local artisan tastings.
On the Menu: We’re talking the real deal here. Bubbling fondue with local alpine cheeses, artisanal bread, Valais charcuterie, and homemade desserts. Pair it with local Swiss wines and warm herbal infusions.
“We created Fondue Sauvage from a desire to slow down, reconnect with nature, and share the magic of the mountains with others. Every snow table is handcrafted and ephemeral, a moment that exists only once, and we love seeing guests discover that sense of wonder, warmth, and simplicity that the Alps inspire,” mention Grace Rocoffort de Vinnière and Léonore Aellen, co-founders of Fondue Sauvage.
Fondue Sauvage accepts private dining inquiries directly via their contact channels, with experiences commissioned on a bespoke, made-to-order basis.
When global brands such as The North Face or high-end hotels like Auberge de La Maison want to host a unique snow table dining event, they call in the pros. Tavolata, which is a creative culinary studio blends gastronomy, design, and storytelling. Tavolata works with local artists to give shape to a winter dream.
On the Menu: Menus are often anchored by a central dish meant to be served across the table. It’s typically a family-style or plated feast featuring creamy Fontina fondues, rich buttery polenta, and roasted meats seasoned with mountain herbs. Pair it all with a crisp Blanc de Morgex, grown in some of Europe's highest vineyards.
Snow table dining proves that the best winter hosting ideas don’t come from doing more, they come from doing things differently. A table carved from snow, bottles buried in drifts, fur-lined seating, fondue bubbling in the cold. These are dinners built around place, shared effort, and the novelty of being outside together, which is exactly why guests remember them.
That same spirit runs through the CAMP VR collection, our edit of venues that already know how to host this way. Cabins, lodges, alpine properties, and outdoor-first settings where gathering around a fire, eating something hot, and staying awhile is part of the appeal. Explore the full CAMP VR collection for more winter hosting ideas, venue inspiration, and gatherings worth planning around.
