Simone Zirolia

Simone Zirolia is a Researcher in the Department of History at the European University Institute (EUI). His research focuses on food history, the Portuguese empire in Asia, early modern history, and cultural history. His doctoral thesis, titled Aroma Português: Culinary negotiations within the Portuguese presence in early Edo Japan, 1542-1700, is supervised by Giorgio Riello and second-read by Lauren Kassell.

His work examines the intersections of culinary practices, colonial dynamics, and cultural exchanges in early modern Japan under Portuguese influence. Zirolia’s research contributes to broader understandings of transnational foodways and imperial interactions in the early modern period.