author lani kingston on a blue background

Hi there!

I create content, write books, run events, and help food, beverage, & travel businesses build and grow.


I’ve published best-selling coffee books in 13 languages; helped set up and subsequently managed MAST Chocolate’s bean-to-bar chocolate factory in London; headed a cooking school run with ‘food waste’ in Australia; worked as one of Chef Dan Barber’s senior managers at Blue Hill at Stone Barns; judged food and coffee for the UK’s prestigious Great Taste Awards; set up brands and retail stores in Singapore; written culinary articles for magazines and newspapers; and researched food production and preparation all around the world.

Today, I help existing and aspirational business owners with development, strategy, and implementation through my agency, Four Seasons of Food. I create food & travel content, and design events, through my creative agency, Perigee Studio.

I design and direct educational programming for Coffee Fest; teach coffee history at Portland State University; and continue to write and create books and content focusing on food history & culture, travel, and coffee.

Content & Events

Perigee Studio is a creative agency based in Portland, Oregon. Alongside renowned wine, product, & outdoors photographer, Cody Onthank, I design events and create content for the food, beverage, and travel industries.

Want help with your business or project?

Business and product development, strategy, buildouts, operational management – if you have a food, beverage, or travel project, I can help.

What’s new?

All my latest articles, projects, events, recipes, trips, classes, and books can be found on my Substack. Subscribe today!

cover of spill the beans book by lani kingston

BESTSELLER

Spill the Beans: Global Coffee Culture and Recipes

Now in 4 languages!

NEW RELEASE

Designing Coffee: New Coffee Places and Branding

Now in 3 languages!


LATEST NEWS

  • Monthly Musings: January, 2024

    Monthly Musings: January, 2024

    This month, discover Sweden’s most delicious (for my money, and Chef Magnus Nilsson may just agree) flatbread; the latest from Coffee Fest; and new interviews from Designing Coffee. I also take Tatler Magazine on a tour of the world’s best coffee shops. Last month was one of quiet reflection. A few days before Christmas, we…

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  • Interview with Tatler Magazine: Inside the world’s most unique and beautiful cafés

    Interview with Tatler Magazine: Inside the world’s most unique and beautiful cafés

    I am very excited to announce the release of a feature article on my work and career in Tatler Magazine – a leading fashion, arts, and design publication founded in Britain in 1901. Written by Barnabas Mah and published on October 17th, 2023, the article focuses on my latest book, Designing Coffee, and my experiences…

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  • On the Road: The Ultimate Sweet Lovers Guide to New York City

    On the Road: The Ultimate Sweet Lovers Guide to New York City

    Originally published in Taste & Travel Issue 17, Spring 2015. Oven doors open to let waft the scent of freshly baked cookies filled with crushed pretzels, butterscotch, and potato chips; seasoned hands deftly squeeze piping bags filled with rosewater-scented cream onto tray after tray of fresh croissant-doughnut pastry hybrids; ice cream vats are filled with local milk,…

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  • (not) Chocolate, (not) Milk: a dessert for Chef Dan Barber’s WastED Menu.

    (not) Chocolate, (not) Milk: a dessert for Chef Dan Barber’s WastED Menu.

    In 2017, renowned New York restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns brought their unique pop up WastED to the roof of Selfridges, London. Partnering with local food producers and manufacturers, they sourced food that would usually have gone to ‘waste’ and created a fine dining pop-up with some of the UK’s leading chefs and culinary…

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