Massey lecturer Matt Burhart blends hospitality, hands-on learning and community impact through baking
An intriguing email landed in inboxes across the Jack C. Massey College of Business at the start of the spring semester: This message contains no action items… unless your sweet tooth is calling.
To his colleagues’ delight, marketing lecturer Matt Burhart announced he would continue a weekly tradition he started the previous semester — bringing homemade baked goods to the faculty lounge for all to enjoy.
What started as a small gesture has grown into something more: a way to build community, enrich student learning and extend Belmont’s impact into the Nashville community.
Where the Recipes Began
Burhart’s love of cooking began in childhood, learning alongside his Italian-American mother, whose father was from Sicily. She made sure her four sons knew their way around the kitchen.
“She was your traditional Italian women who taught us all how to cook, do laundry and clean house so we could meet women who would want to marry us,” Burhart laughed.
Rather than seeing his culinary education as a chore, Burhart cherished the time he spent cooking in the kitchen with his mom. He passed the love of cooking to his two sons, and his passion developed into something even greater.
“Cooking is my ministry,” Burhart said. “I can’t sing. I can’t play a musical instrument, but I love to cook.”
From learning alongside nonnos and nonnas during mission trips in Italy to making the workweek a bit sweeter for colleagues, Burhart keeps finding ways to infuse his love of cooking into everything he does.
Enriching the Classroom
Burhart joined Massey’s faculty as a full-time lecturer last semester, after being an adjunct since 2018. Like many Massey faculty, he brings extensive industry experience into the classroom, helping students connect what they’re learning to the real world.
After a 33-year career in corporate sales and marketing at Nissan, he brings real-world perspective into courses like Principles of Marketing and New Product Development.
“It instills reality into what students are learning, instead of just reading about it in a textbook,” he said.
Now, his baking venture offers yet another living example students can study.
The Right Mix: Campus and Community Impact
Colleagues may be the first to enjoy Burhart’s creations, but students and visitors can also find them at Bruin Bodega, one of Belmont’s student-run retail spaces powered by the Cone Center for Entrepreneurship.
Under the name Massimo Baking, Burhart offers pre-packaged baked goods that support hands-on learning in product development, branding and customer experience, while spotlighting the support of faculty-led ventures within the Belmont entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The impact of Burhart’s passion doesn’t end on campus. After colleagues sampled his baking and learned more about his love of cooking, Burhart was invited to serve as a faculty advisor on a social entrepreneurship project through Belmont’s Enactus student organization.
With guidance from Burhart and other faculty members, students are supporting SWEET DAISY, a social enterprise of the Nashville Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition.
“They're using me as the advisor to help them evaluate the marketing part of the business plan they will submit for a grant to fund the nonprofit,” he explained.
Baking with SOUL
In addition to baked goods, Burhart brings humor and hospitality by crafting playful emails inviting colleagues to stop by the faculty lounge before treats run out.
He experiments with traditional Italian recipes, adapts classics for colleagues’ tastes and introduces foods like sbrisolona, a crumbly Italian cake meant to be broken and shared at the center of community.
“That's what the faculty lounge is supposed to be for,” he said. “I love trying to brighten everybody's day with the humor in the emails and with the taste of the food. The College of Business is already a great community, and I’m just hoping I can add to it.”
Belmont’s SOUL framework calls the community to lead with excellence, gratitude, hospitality and togetherness. Through cooking, Burhart has found a meaningful way to live out those values, creating space for connection, learning and shared joy.
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