As he takes his seat, a plate of marinated scallops and crab is served and the eight friends around the table raise their champagne flutes toasting “a fine location” before tucking into their starter.
Nothing unusual . . . except that this candle-lit dinner is being held on the summit of a remote Scottish hill with views across Loch Lomond.
The highly imaginative and challenging alfresco dinner is part of a new outdoors adventure trend called extreme dining.
The idea is to host a formal dinner party in as unlikely or extreme a location as possible. The destination is kept a secret from guests until the last minute.
Earlier this summer, Smith and his team dined on a pontoon on a remote loch in the west of Scotland after walking for hours cross-country, then paddling a mile aboard inflatable swimming pool toys. Another dinner was held behind a large waterfall in the Campsie Fells near Glasgow, following a three-hour trek.
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The rules are simple: all guests must be dressed in formal evening wear (walking boots allowed) for the entire adventure. As well as hiking across rough terrain to a mystery location, they must carry a dining table, chairs, white linen tablecloth and napkins, a silver serving dish, a candelabra and candles, cutlery, gravy dish and a four-course, precooked meal that is reheated over a fire or barbecue.
Drinks should include fine wines, sherry and port or brandy. A camera is also required to prove the dinner took place.
“One of the other rules of our challenge is absolutely no moaning,” says Smith. “We only invite like-minded people to be part of the concept and to attend our special dinners. Often there is a long walk to the dining location, over rough terrain and through rivers, and everyone has to carry their share of the equipment.”
In a similar trend during the late 1990s, the public’s imagination was caught by the extreme ironing craze. Over the years, madcap challenges have seen adventurers ironing in a canoe, while skiing, on top of large bronze statues, underwater and in war zones. There have been television documentaries, a DVD and a book about extreme ironing, as well as a world championship in 2002.
“People couldn’t believe what these guys got up to when it first came to the public’s attention,” says Gary Tompsett, a Scottish-based adventure race organiser. “Around that time I was trying to plan a stag weekend for one of my friends. I wanted to do something a bit different and I suddenly thought that instead of ironing we should go for extreme dining.”
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Tompsett, 40, from Strathaven, south Lanarkshire, set about organising an extreme dining challenge on the Inner Hebridean isle of Coll.
“Everyone had to wear tuxedos or kilts and a black tie,” says Tompsett. “Then they also had to carry all the food — four full courses, I believe — a huge dining table, a candelabra and everything we needed for an evening of fine dining.
“It was a struggle for some hiking to the remote beach, but everyone had fun and enjoyed the challenge.”
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Since then he has organised dinner parties on the summit of mountains, deep inside caves, on inter-tidal islands and in public places, such as a busy beach. “The public ones are the funniest,” he says. “Passers-by just can’t resist coming up to find out what is going on.”
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Tompsett is delighted that what he calls the sport of extreme dining is now taking off.
“I never bothered to make anything formal,” he says. “My extreme dinners were just for a group of friends, but it’s great to see other people making it more of an official adventure pursuit.”
The exclusive club that Smith launched now has 27 members. There is a registration procedure and only those who “share a passion for elegant food, fine wine and the pursuit of adventure” are likely to make the grade. But there’s nothing to stop anyone with a spirit of adventure, sturdy walking boots and a hearty appetite holding their own events.
“It’s like adventure racing in general,” says Smith, who has taken part in the Bristol and Edinburgh Rat Races, eccentric urban triathlon-like events that include climbing, kayaking and mountain-biking. “For the team to make it to the finish line they have to be compatible mentally and physically. Our team members are no different.”
Kathryn Townshend, 28, a clinical psychologist from Glasgow who has attended two dinners hosted by Smith, says: “For me it’s almost an extension of adventure racing. Extreme dining combines mental ingenuity with physical challenges, just like in any adventure race, but with the reward of a special dinner in an unusual location.”
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“But you do have to be a bit mad and up for it,” adds Ruth Cameron, a 31-year-old web and graphic designer from Edinburgh. “Walking to a remote location in full evening wear poses all kinds of challenges. For example, I’ve had to throw away a skirt because it didn’t survive a river crossing.
“Then there’s the public exposure. We’ve met people en route to our dinners who have thought we were very strange. One dinner on a loch really amused the locals, too. You have to overcome any potential embarrassment and be able to enjoy yourself on these occasions.”
But Sal Moodie, 26, wouldn’t have it any other way. “Extreme dining is such a good adventure,” she says. “It’s one thing to climb a mountain, but in a dress with a dining table on your head, that’s what I call a challenge.”
Smith, who runs a Glasgow-based product design company, is now planning the next dining challenge.
“The logistics of such adventures are time-consuming,” he says, “so we can only stage four or five dinners a year. So far we’ve done one on a hillside, on a mountain, another with a water theme. Now we’re looking at an urban dinner and then a dinner somewhere snowy.
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“Each one has a host who decides where the event will take place. The overall challenge is to come up with something more extreme each time.”
Ideas, so far, for the urban dinner are the top of the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow (“Subject to permission,” suggests Townshend), on an underground train or on a roundabout in the middle of a city.
An extreme kind of madness or just extremely good fun? I guess the only way to find out would be to become an extreme diner.
How do I enter the secretive world of extreme dining?
Go to www.extremedining.co.uk for the rules and to register.
Anything else?
You could try www.makethisday.com/teambonding/extreme-dining to turn the adventure into a team-building experience.