Roberta Muir’s passion for cooking started as far back as she can remember. By the time she was in her early teens, Roberta was teaching herself how to cook using recipes in The Women’s Weekly Cookbooks. Her fascination for the world and travel came soon after when studying Geography and Social Studies in high school.
Growing up in a middle-class family in NSW in the ‘70s, travel wasn’t a given, rather it was aspirational for Roberta. It wasn’t until her mid-20s that she travelled overseas for the first time where she visited Turkey for 3 months with a Turkish girlfriend she had met at university. It was this early experience where Roberta realised the value of travelling with someone that had insider knowledge - someone that can take you behind the scenes. Her friend’s family took them both to parts of Turkey and opened them up to local cuisines they wouldn’t have experienced if they had just visited as tourists. And so, Roberta’s love for being a traveller rather than a tourist was born!
Now with a Masters in Gastronomy, Roberta refers to herself as a “food history geek.” She possesses a passion for learning about the etymology of recipe names and the history of the ingredients she works with, which she shares to the appreciation of her clients that she refers to as her cooks.
Roberta’s business, Be Inspired Food Wine Travel, was established in June 2021 making it easy for passionate home cooks to explore new cuisines and ingredients by connecting them with great chefs and awesome producers. The experiences she offers are both virtual and in person with a focus on: cooking classes, fresh and easy meals, local tours, and more recently, international tours.
Be Inspired focuses on a new cuisine each month which Roberta researches before selecting recipes which she then drafts and tests. Her next step is to reach out to her network of well known chefs asking one of them to collaborate on a recipe and create a video of it together. Once all the recipe videos have been finalised, Roberta puts the copy together for the e-magazine containing the recipes, video links and related food, wine and travel information and then the kit is launched.
Roberta’s online cooking classes and recipe kits are for people who love to cook - people who think it is fun to spend an afternoon in the kitchen on a Saturday. Then there’s another segment of people that love great quality food but really just need to get dinner on the table quickly. As a result, Roberta started the line called ‘Fresh & Easy’ - delicious meals in 30 minutes which still involve cooking but are less labour intensive. Roberta describes them as an alternative to meal kits like Hello Fresh for people who value premium quality and authentic flavours.
December 2023 sees a focus on Southern Italy with Roberta teaming up with retired Neapolitan chef Armando Percuoco of Buon Ricordo to cook beautiful baked quail with pear and walnut salad - perfect for Christmas day! (Orders are closing 03/12/23, so get in quick!) Previous collaborations include deep dives into the Caribbean with Paul Carmichael, France with Damien Pignolet, Portugal with Jose Silva and America’s Deep South with Morgan McGlone.
Roberta has built a strong community - a lot of her cooks share pictures, ask questions and support each other through a Facebook group as well as coming together for regular dinners and events. The testimonials on her website suggest that Roberta’s cooks experience great results from the Be Inspired Recipe Kits, and love how well researched and tested the recipes are.
A growing side of Roberta’s business is local tours and events including a duck and pinot walk in Chatswood NSW. This tour involves three restaurants where different duck dishes and pinot are enjoyed. Be Inspired has also conducted tours of the Vannella Cheese factory in Marrickville and a series of meet the maker dinners where a chef, producer and wine expert are brought together for a dinner collaboration. These local events have great corporate application including an ideal platform for client entertainment and team building.
Roberta recently hosted a food and wine tour of Emilia-Romagna, a sometimes overlooked region south of Milan and Venice and north of Florence. The region stretches almost all the way across Italy from the Adriatic nearly to the Mediterranean and until Italian unification was two regions - Emilia in the West and Romagna in the East. Roberta explains that they are still two very different territories.
The small tour group moved every few days and stayed in comfortable hotels in historic buildings, exploring many beautifully preserved Medieval towns and enjoying a huge diversity of regional food and wine.
The tour started in Emilia and included the cities Parma (famous for parmesan cheese and prosciutto), Modena (famous for traditional balsamic vinegar) and Bologna (an all-round foodie hub).
The Romagna territory proved to be more rustic serving up some amazing seafood down the Adriatic coast. This part of the tour also included Comacchio, a town built on canals like a mini Venice.
Franceschetta58, a slightly edgy more casual restaurant owned by world famous chef Massimo Bottura, was a highlight of the tour where traditional ingredients merge with modern techniques for a unique experience. The tour group also visited producers to learn about the history and production of traditional foods, experienced a hands-on cooking class and enjoyed tours and tastings at several local wineries.
Roberta is heading back to Emilia-Romagna in October 2024 and tours on the drawing board for 2025 include Rome-Amalfi-Basilicata, Scotland and Switzerland - Roberta’s chosen destinations where she can take her guests behind the scenes for a unique experience. She has Scottish ancestry, a Swiss husband and a wealth of contacts in Italy having written two Italian cookbooks.
Roberta feels blessed to count many well-known Australian chefs amongst her friends including David Thompson, Paul Carmichael, Janni Kyritsis, Giovanni Pilu, Matt Moran, Alessandro Pavoni and Armando Percuoco, all of whom she’s collaborated with for her online cooking classes.
One of the favourite pieces of advice Roberta has received was from Paul Carmichael. Paul discussed the frustration he was experiencing with his young chefs and apprentices with their belief that the goal was to create a dish as quickly as possible.
Paul taught them the goal is in fact the journey. Rather than be in a hurry to have the finished meal on a plate, it’s important to take all the right steps, respect every ingredient and follow through and enjoy the process. Yes, the end result is to produce a fabulous dish, but if you’re rushing to the end, you’re missing the journey and half the point.
When it comes to cooking, whether it’s meat, fish or poultry, Roberta explains there are three things chefs do that most home cooks don’t.
Roberta has been a member of The CEO Institute for over 5 years. When asked about her experience she shared, “I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now without The CEO Institute. Our Syndicate (which we refer to as ‘the tribe’) really is such a close group, I can’t imagine a more supportive group of people”.
When Roberta decided to step away from her role at Sydney Seafood School, her tribe which consists mainly of business owners, offered her great support and advice when starting up Be Inspired.
“I highly recommend The CEO Institute to anyone regardless of what point they are at in their CEO or leadership journey - whether you have a small, medium or large company, it is the most fabulous support network.”
Learn more about Roberta Muir and Be inspired:
Website: https://beinspired.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beinspiredfoodwinetravel
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