Salt Bae

About

Salt Bae is a nickname given to Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, who was widely discussed on social media following the circulation of a viral video in which he flamboyantly sprinkles salt on a carved steak. Since his online debut in 2017, Salt Bae has been featured in numerous memes around the internet, typically using his photo as an exploitable or image macro.

Origin

On January 7th, 2017, Gökçe uploaded a video of himself carving a steak and sprinkling salt over his forearm on to the meat (shown below). Within 48 hours, the video gained over 2.4 million views and 8,700 comments.^[1] That day, Twitter user @lolalissaa^[3] reposted the video along the the message "so this is #saltbae."

Spread

That evening, @lolalissaa reposted another video in which Gökçe hangs a cooked slab of meat over a woman's mouth, garnering upwards of 3,100 likes and 2,500 retweets in two days (shown below).

Also on January 7th, 2017, Twitter user @elBeardedBandit^[1] tweeted a You vs. The Guy image macro featuring a screenshot of Gökçe sprinking salt (shown below, left). Within 48 hours, the tweet garnered more than 48,000 likes and 33,000 retweets. The following day, Twitter user @NerdyAjet^[4] posted an illustration of Gökçe (shown below, right).

On January 8th, Twitter user @Ratchetveli tweeted a parody video of himself making greit with the hashtag #GritsBae (shown below). That evening, a Twitter moments page titled "The world is obsessed with a Turkish meat monger" was created, highlighting tweets about Gökçe's video.^[2]

On January 9th, Twitter user @j.kube posted a parody of Gökçe's video in which he cuts the crust off several slices of bread, butters them and then sprinkles rainbow sprinkles over his forearm (shown below). In the coming days, several news sites published articles about Gökçe's online fame, including The Verge,^[5] The Telegraph,^[6] NY Mag,^[7] Wall Street Journal,^[9] NBC News,^[10] TIME^[11] and Elite Daily.^[8]

Marco Rubio Feud

On September 17th, 2018, Nurset Gökçe served Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro at his restaraunt Nusr-Et in Istanbul, Turkey. Gökçe posted a video of him serving Maduro, as well as presenting him with a Salt Bae t-shirt on his Instagram page, which has since been deleted (mirror below). ^[12]

That day, Florida Senator Marco Rubio retweeted Gökçe's post and commented,^[13] "I don’t know who this weirdo #Saltbae is, but the guy he is so proud to host is not the President of #Venezuela. He is actually the overweight dictator of a nation where 30% of the people eat only once a day & infants are suffering from malnutrition." The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 2,100 retweets and 3,000 likes in 24 hours.

He continued to tweet about the subject, seemingly encouraging constituents to call Gökçe's restaurant to complain. He tweeted,^[14] "This guy @nusr_ett who admires dictator @NicolasMaduro so much actually owns a steakhouse in, of all places, #Miami. It’s called NUSR-ET STEAKHOUSE MIAMI located at 999 Brickell Avenue, Miami, FL 33131 The phone number is 1 305 415 9990 in case anyone wanted to call."

Some online took offense to Rubio's posting the restaurant's address and phone number. Washington Post tech reporter Tony Romm tweeted,^[15] "So. Sen Rubio last night tweeted out the name, address and phone number of a business with which he's having a political disagreement, and I wonder exactly how Twitter's going to handle that given its policies on real-world harm/elected officials."

London Location Prices

On September 26th, 2021, Twitter user @jjamz_ tweeted a picture of a bill at Nusr-Et's London location, which came out to 1,812 pounds. The picture went viral on Twitter as people joked about the exorbitant prices at the restaurant.

Salt Bae Qatar FIFA World Cup Final Controversy

In December 2022, Nusret Gökçe came under scrutiny for appearing to harrass Argentinian players during their World Cup Victory celebration by taking the FIFA trophy out of their hands and biting their medals.

On December 18th, Twitter^[18] user @zekedabolina posted a video of Lionel Messi ignoring Salt Bae as he tries to badger him and get his attention. The video gathered over 18.2 million views and 46,000 likes in over a month (seen below).

Even Messi knows salt bae is a hack pic.twitter.com/c457o1GnHt

— Z Bo (@zekedabolina) December 18, 2022

On December 19th, Twitter^[17] user @JCUStreaks10 posted a video scrolling through a series of now-deleted videos on Salt Bae's Instagram, where he can be seen trying to throw salt on the trophy and pry it from player's hands. THe tweet gathered over 35,000 likes in over a month (seen below).

A collection of Salt Bae trying for clout with these players. So painful to watch. Like forcing himself between 2 players and trying to take the trophy away while players try to maintain professionalism, but their faces can be clearly read they are annoyed pic.twitter.com/BbChdBEK3M

— Kevin Huyghe (@JCUStreaks10) December 19, 2022

On December 20th, Twitter^[16] user @terryflewers reposted an Instagram post by Salt Bae, saying, "This is ridiculous, shame on FIFA for allowing him to touch, kiss, and hold the World Cup. Salt Bae drops salt on meat, what is he doing there?" and gathering over 180,000 likes in over a month (seen below, left). Also on December 20th, the official Twitter account for the US Open Cup soccer tournament posted a tweet that read, "Salt Bae is hereby banned from the 2023 @opencup
Final." The tweet gathered over 150,000 likes in nearly a month (seen below, right).

Search Interest

External References