Behind the Pages: Amelia Pane Schaffner

Italian-born writer and photographer Amelia Pane Schaffner brings a global perspective — and a deep sense of curiosity — to everything she creates. Splitting her time between Jackson Hole and Boulder, Colorado, Amelia’s life stretches across three continents, reflecting a worldview shaped by travel, food, family and the search for meaning in everyday rituals. After a successful career in corporate strategy and innovation, she turned her focus toward the creative, founding her brand Z Tasty Life as a space to explore stories of place, taste and the inner life.

In the last edition of the magazine, Amelia explored what makes the Jackson Hole Farmer's Market a truly special community event. In the upcoming winter edition of JHStyle Magazine, Amelia invites readers to slow down and savor the season through two evocative features — “Fire & Ice,” a meditation on winter’s rituals of reflection and peace, and a delicious roundup of the best warm bowls around Jackson Hole. Her work captures what she herself found here years ago: that rare blend of awe, silence and belonging that only the mountains can offer.

We caught up with her to find out what winter means for her personally, what lights her creative fire in chilly months and much more.

What was your favorite part of contributing to the 25/26 Winter Edition of JHStyle?

The chance to write about some of the profound wonders of winter: stargazing, rituals, sauna culture, mindfulness, breathwork, and how these practices enrich our inner landscape. They mark a time when life goes darker and colder leaving space for much needed rest and transformation.

During cold months, what's your go-to beverage to warm up?

My dad's "cioccolata calda", an old-world thick hot chocolate fortified with coffee, perfumed with lemon zest, and spiked with anis.

What's the perfect wintertime meal?

Soup. I start with a from-scratch chicken broth, then build it out: lentils with sweet potato and kale, or tiny meatballs with spinach and orzo, or farro with mushrooms and root vegetables. Always with a thick slice of whole-wheat sourdough.

What's your favorite part of winter? And what's just the worst?

Favorite part of winter: the permission to winter, to let myself go dormant, to slow the pace, to restore my summered soul, to prune to the essential, to think and reflect, to write and tend the interior so that spring can bloom from something deeper. And yes, the joy of skiing, sauna heat and cozy houses. Worst part: cold, wet feet.

When it's time to turn on some music and get to writing, what's on your playlist?

Warm, small-ensemble, instrumental, blue note jazz. Here's my playlist.

Chilly temps, wind, snow... what wintertime wardrobe items would you perish without?

Technical base layers, a heavy down coat, a soft cashmere hat, a balaclava, serious mittens and merino socks.

Describe your ideal winter day.

Sunrise meditation, reading and journaling, hot yoga, slow cooking, skiing, sauna, fireplace soup with jazz, drinks with friends, stargazing and back to reading before bed.

Where's your favorite spot to write? Why?

In my library, because I write best among the pages of other writers: their words, whether written yesterday or two thousand years ago, inspire me to be a better writer.

If you could enjoy a fireside chat with one writer — dead or alive — who would it be and why?

Dostoevsky: because he wrote from inside the fracture of being human. His work feels as if he lowered a lantern into the darker chambers of the psyche and took notes without moral anesthesia. He knew from his own ordeal (poverty, exile, near-execution, illness, addiction) that a person is never a single thing but a tangle of emotions.

If someone is looking for a great book to add to their winter reading list, what would you recommend?

I would recommend two very different winter companions. For fiction, "A River Sutra" by Gita Mehta: a quiet, luminous novel set in India, where chance encounters become meditations on longing, devotion and the inner life. For nonfiction, "Wintering" by Katherine May, a reflective exploration of the dormant seasons of a life, and how rest, retreat and interior work can be generative.

Whether she’s chasing light through the mountains or savoring stories around the table, Amelia Pane Schaffner continues to explore how beauty, meaning, and connection intertwine. Follow her work and travels at ztastylife.com and on Instagram @z.tasty.life for more reflections on food, place and the art of living with intention.