Julian Santosoaji spent much of his childhood and adolescence at his parents’ warung in Bandung, West Java. Growing up as a cook, he soon found out how food is a cornerstone of culture and is inescapably political.

Julian studied International Relations at the University of Indonesia before moving to London to pursue his master’s degree in Anthropology of Food from SOAS.

For his MA dissertation, Julian conducted sensory ethnography in two Indonesian restaurants in London, highlighting the inextricable connection between multi-sensory experience and the negotiation of ‘culinary authenticity’ in the context of ‘ethnic’ restaurants.

At the KITLV, he wishes to delve deeper into the foodways of Indonesian diasporas by conducting more extensive fieldwork in Suriname as part of the research project Trajectories of Taste: An analytical framework of culinary change.