Roberta Bisetto

Roberta is the finance person at STREAT and takes care of all things financial, including preparing budgets and three-year plans, and assisting with funding submissions. She likes to think of her role as important for the simple reason that she is responsible for providing financial information which assists the CEO and STREAT Board in understanding and making informed business decisions on the operations of the organisation, with the aim of becoming fully sustainable within a reasonable period.

Why do you live in Melbourne?

I was born and raised in Melbourne and I love this city.  I may be biased, but I like to think that I’m a good judge, because I have done my fair share of travelling around the world having been to various parts of Australia, Asia, America, South America and Europe (including living in London for a short period). I truly do believe that Melbourne is one of the best cities to live in the world.  I love the shopping, I love the food, I love the fact that we have many different cultures living in Melbourne and with that it brings the choice of many different cuisines.  Having worked in the city for most of my career, I love how you can turn a corner or walk into a laneway and discover something new every time.

What’s the most memorable dish you’ve ever eaten?

I would say that the most memorable dish (or in this case dishes) that I ever had would be all the meals eaten whilst on a four day trek through a number of hilltribe villages in Chang Mai, Thailand.  The food was either grown by the villages or carried by the tour guides for the entire trek and it was prepared with no gas or electricity.  Maybe it was because we were preparing food by candlelight (and my sight was impaired) or maybe it was because we were starving after trekking for five hours a day, but my sense of smell was magnified and the food smelled and tasted amazing.  I can’t remember the name of the dishes I ate but I do remember how such simple ingredients could taste so delicious.

Where is your favourite place to eat in the world?

Okay, so now I am definitely being biased when I say that Italy is my favourite place to eat in the world and it’s probably because of my Italian heritage.  Somehow the Italians just know how to turn a simple pasta dish into something extraordinary.

Tell us about an adventure you’ve had on the street.

I was with my husband and it was our last day in Venice and we decided to leave the map at our hotel.  It wasn’t long before we were lost in the streets and laneways of Venice.  But, because we were lost we actually found the most fabulous stores, such as a bookshop that sold handmade leather-bound books, and an antique store that sold beautiful antique prints, and a shop that sold the most delicate Christmas ornaments (even though it was July) and we found the most peaceful of bridges and the most mouthwatering gelateria and the whole adventure was magical.