The Salt Bae Effect

In the late 2010s, fame didn’t always come from film premieres or chart-topping albums. Sometimes, it arrived via a flick of the wrist and a cascade of salt.

Back in 2017, Nusret Gökçe became unavoidable online. Dubbed Salt Bae, the Turkish chef transformed a routine kitchen gesture into a global calling card, posting videos that saw him teasing food toward celebrity mouths or seasoning steak with theatrical flair. It was pure spectacle—and the internet couldn’t look away.

Hollywood noticed. Leonardo DiCaprio stopped by his New York restaurant, Drake dined at the Miami location, and David Beckham brought his family along for the full experience. Almost overnight, Gökçe embodied the modern success story—what many celebrated as “from a humble butchers boy to an internet sensation.”

That backstory mattered. Born in 1983 in Erzurum, eastern Turkey, Gökçe left school at 12 and learned his trade the hard way as a butcher’s apprentice. In his twenties, he travelled to Argentina and the US, working unpaid shifts in steakhouses just to absorb technique and business know-how. The goal was always clear: build something of his own.

That ambition became reality in 2010 with the launch of Nusr-Et in Istanbul. Quality meat and showmanship drew crowds, but it was social media that turned a successful restaurant into a global brand. Locations soon followed in Dubai, London, Miami and New York, each selling not just steak, but access to the Salt Bae moment.

Yet the very excess that fuelled the rise began to undermine it. Eye-watering prices sparked backlash, particularly in the UK, where a £37,000 bill went viral for all the wrong reasons. Losses reportedly climbed past £5 million, even after price cuts. In the US, closures mounted—New York, Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas and Beverly Hills all fell away, leaving only a pair of American outposts.

Public perception dipped further after the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, when Gökçe was criticised for celebrating on the pitch and handling the trophy. He also suffered a legal setback after a UK tribunal ruled that the word “SALT” was too generic to trademark.

Even so, Salt Bae isn’t fading away. With more than 50 million Instagram followers and restaurants still operating across Turkey, Europe and the Middle East, he remains a global name—proof that viral fame may come quickly, but longevity takes more than a signature flourish.