Nusrat Gökçe, the Turkish chef known popularly as Salt Bae, has conquered the virtual world of culinary connoisseurs with his unique, theatrical cutting of the steak and sprinkling salt over the cooked meat. He cuts and cleaves chunks of meat, wielding the heavy knives and cleavers dramatically, and ends with a characteristic flourish of his hand sprinkling salt. The salt is dropped from his fingertips from the open palm to his forearm, from where it falls onto the steak.
Instagram videos of the chef sporting dark glasses while making his cuts have become viral hits. His first videos were out in 2017. ‘Salt Bae’ at present has over 2.5 crores followers in Instagram.
Nusr-Et Steak House, his restaurant chain, has branches in Abu Dhabi, Doha, New York, Miami, Dubai and Istanbul. Many celebrities including the footballers Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Paul Pogba have visited his restaurant to savour the food. Recently Mollywood actor Tovino also visited his restaurant chain in Istanbul.
‘Salt Bae’ has also attracted enough of his share of controversies. The ’24 Carat Gold Steak,’ sprinkled with fine gold dust caused quite an uproar in the social media.
His manoeuvrings with the knives give the impression that cooking has more to do with some martial arts than with actual cooking!