Nusret Gökçe was building a restaurant business before the salt-sprinkling pose made him an internet celebrity. He began as a butcher, opened Nusr-Et in Istanbul in 2010, and helped shape its identity around personal tableside service. A January 2017 video made his signature gesture internationally recognizable; it amplified a business already expanding beyond Turkey.
Who is Salt Bae?
“Salt Bae” is the nickname attached to Turkish butcher and restaurateur Nusret Gökçe. The name refers to his distinctive way of letting salt fall from his fingertips onto meat, a gesture that became widely recognizable after a short restaurant video circulated in January 2017. Gökçe’s story is not simply one of a viral personality: Nusr-Et, the restaurant brand associated with him, had opened its first location years earlier.
Gökçe’s own words connect the performance to his view of the work. In a 2017 account by TIME, he described how “meat has become a passion for me” and said, “I can ‘communicate with people through meat.’” Those statements help explain the personal, demonstrative style he brought to the table; they are his description of his approach, not an independent judgment of the restaurants’ food.
How did Nusret Gökçe learn the butcher’s trade?
Nusr-Et’s official biography says Gökçe was born in a village in Erzurum and moved to Istanbul when he was three. It says financial hardship led him to leave school in sixth grade and begin an apprenticeship in a butcher shop. In a 2017 interview excerpt reported by The FADER, Gökçe likewise said he became a butcher at 14 because his family could not afford schooling. These are biographical accounts attributed to Gökçe and the company, rather than independently documented records.
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The company biography describes him working across different parts of meat production and kitchen operations, then traveling to Argentina and the United States to learn about meat culture, cutting, cooking, and presentation. In a 2025 interview, Gökçe also recalled studying restaurant menus and service in New York before returning to Istanbul. Taken together, these accounts present his later restaurant persona as rooted in a trade he had studied and practiced, not an act devised only for social media.
What made the first Nusr-Et restaurant distinctive?
Nusr-Et’s official account dates its first restaurant to 2010, in Istanbul’s Etiler Çamlık neighborhood. The company says it began with ten tables and ten team members, serving a simple, meat-centered menu. Gökçe personally presented dishes at guests’ tables, making the act of serving part of the experience from the outset.
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That early model joined craft and showmanship: the meat was the focus, while the butcher’s own presence and presentation made the meal feel personal. Nusr-Et COO Al Avci later described the concept as a vision to serve steaks with “tableside service and with shows,” in remarks quoted by Restaurant Dive. That is an executive’s account of the brand’s idea, not a neutral assessment of its quality.
How did the Salt Bae gesture go viral?
On January 7, 2017, Nusr-Et’s Instagram account posted a video of Gökçe cutting meat and sprinkling salt in his now-familiar pose. Contemporary coverage documented the clip’s viral spread and the “Salt Bae” nickname, as well as plans to take the restaurant business to New York and London. The sources establish the moment and its broad cultural recognition, but not a verified total view count for the meme.
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Gökçe told The FADER that the salting “came automatically,” calling it his signature and comparing it to a final touch on a painting. He said he was “blessing the meat.” The explanation captures both sides of the image: a practical finishing gesture transformed into a highly legible performance, easy to recognize and share in a short video.
Did the restaurant business predate the viral fame?
Yes. Nusr-Et opened in Istanbul in 2010; according to the company, it joined the d.ream family in 2012 and opened its first international restaurant in Dubai in 2014. These dates place the brand’s beginnings and its first overseas step before the 2017 video. The company’s official chronology lists subsequent openings in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Miami, New York, Dallas, Mykonos, Boston, Beverly Hills, and London.
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The distinction matters: the meme did not create the restaurant business from nothing. The 2017 attention arrived after Nusr-Et had already established a service concept and an international location. It gave that concept a famous face and gesture, potentially making the theatrics as recognizable as the restaurant name.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What do the growth figures show—and what do they not show?
Restaurant Dive reported that Nusr-Et opened ten steakhouses in the three years before its October 2023 article. The outlet also reported company figures showing 57% growth in global sales from 2018 to 2022, reaching $225 million, and 38% growth in U.S. sales to $61.7 million in 2022. These are historical, company-attributed sales figures reported in 2023—not current sales or an independently audited, continuous public series.
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Nusr-Et’s official biography, reviewed October 8, 2026, describes the business as operating thirty locations across three continents. That is the company’s current-page count and may change; it should not be conflated with older location counts or treated as an independent ranking of the brand’s size.
Craft, spectacle, and the limits of the “greatest” claim
Gökçe’s rise is best understood through the interplay of butcher’s craft, an early restaurant built around tableside presentation, and a distinctive gesture that translated exceptionally well to social media. The same performance that made him famous also complicates how the restaurants are discussed: viewers may encounter the show before they encounter the food or the business history.
“World’s greatest food entertainer” is a superlative, not a measurable title established by the accounts cited here. The sources support describing Gökçe as a prominent food-entertainment figure whose theatrical service became globally recognizable. They do not establish an objective ranking of his skill, the quality of Nusr-Et’s food, or the total reach of the meme. La Cucina Italiana reported 52 million Instagram followers in 2025; that is a publication-time figure, not a current count.
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