About Amelia

Ciao! My name is Amelia Pane Schaffner. I am an Italian gal from Sorrento and Rome. I have been refining my culinary passion ever since I can remember. 

I write about trying to stay true to my Italian cultural and culinary roots while living abroad in America (Atlanta, Georgia). 

My day job is at Emory University, where I lead entrepreneurship and innovation (and prior to that I was a strategy consultant with Accenture). I love stretching both left and right side of my brain in my life, from quantitative to innovative and creative.  

I aspire to share my culinary passion in a book one day, following in my parents’ footsteps: Mariano and Rita Pane, who co-wrote two cookbooks, most famously Tastes of the Southern Italy (“I Sapori del Sud”), which was published by Rizzoli in 1991 and subsequently reprinted numerous times in their BUR edition.

I am an avid reader and researcher and write merely out of passion and extreme curiosity. In 2008, I received a culinary arts certificate at a local university, I have taught classes privately, written articles for magazines such as Edible Atlanta, presented on conference panels, and appeared on local TV cooking segments at WXIA/Channel 11. 

My other life passions include photography (if you click the photography menu above you can see a small sampling) and the visual arts, writing and poetry in particular, travelling, and the outdoors. I have two teenage boys and a husband, who is American. My family of origin lives between Rome and Sorrento, Italy, where I visit as often as I can