Salt Bae, born Nusret Gökçe, captivated millions with his unique flair for seasoning meat, transforming him into an overnight sensation.

Yet, behind the glitz and glamour of his luxury steakhouses lies a dark reality of exploitation and scandal.

As his empire crumbled under the weight of arrogance and poor choices, the world watched in disbelief.

What led to his dramatic fall from grace, and can anyone truly recover from such a public disaster?
The Rise and Fall of Salt Bae: From Internet Sensation to Culinary Pariah – A Cautionary Tale of Ego and Excess
“Now everybody wants to be a butcher because of me.”
From viral fame to the brink of irrelevance, Salt Bae’s meteoric rise in the culinary world is a textbook example of how fame can fade as quickly as it appears.

Nuzret Goce, the man behind the Salt Bae meme, built a global empire from his signature salting technique—but his ego, arrogance, and greed have turned him from a viral sensation into a cautionary tale.

Let’s explore how Salt Bae went from rags to riches and then to irrelevance.

The Humble Beginnings of Nuzret Goce: From Butcher to Internet Star
Nuzret Goce, better known as Salt Bae, began his life in a small Turkish village where financial struggles forced him to leave school at 13 and start working as a butcher’s apprentice.

Working long hours with limited resources, he gradually gained experience in the food industry, eventually opening his first steakhouse in Istanbul in 2010.

Despite his humble beginnings, his skill in cooking and passion for food began to earn him recognition.

In 2016, he caught the attention of Turkish billionaire Verit Sahank, who helped him expand his restaurant empire throughout the Middle East.

The Viral Moment: How Salt Bae Became an Internet Sensation
On January 7th, 2017, Salt Bae’s life changed forever when he posted a video of himself slicing meat and sprinkling salt in a unique, theatrical manner.

The video went viral instantly, racking up millions of views and sparking memes across the internet.

His signature move—salting the steak with his fingers—became iconic, turning Nuzret into a global sensation.

It wasn’t long before people started flocking to his restaurants just for the chance to see the man behind the meme.

The internet had fallen in love with Salt Bae, and his rise to fame was almost overnight.

The Highs: Building an Empire on the Back of Viral Fame
Riding the wave of his newfound fame, Salt Bae expanded his restaurant empire to cities like New York, London, and Dubai, opening luxury steakhouses with eye-watering prices.

The restaurants boasted dishes like a $1,800 gold-coated steak, $100 burgers, and $25 desserts.

The experience was as much about the spectacle as the food, with celebrities like David Beckham, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the Kardashians flocking to his locations.

For a while, it seemed like Salt Bae had cracked the code for turning viral success into a global brand.

The Fall Begins: Quality Takes a Back Seat to Ego
Behind the flashy gold steaks and Instagram-worthy moments, however, the quality of the food started to suffer.

Critics slammed his New York steakhouse as the worst in the city, while the London location received poor reviews, ranking in the bottom 33% of restaurants on TripAdvisor.

Complaints about undercooked meat, bad service, and inflated prices piled up.

Yet, despite the negative feedback, Salt Bae remained focused on his public image, sharing receipts from customers spending exorbitant amounts and flaunting his wealth on social media.

His ego was clearly taking the forefront—Salt Bae had become more about the performance and the spectacle than the actual food.

“Now everybody wants to be a butcher because of me,” he boasted, cementing his belief that he was an icon.

But this arrogance would soon come back to haunt him.

The Turning Point: Exploiting Employees and Dangerous Stunts
The cracks in Salt Bae’s empire began to show when a fire stunt meant to impress diners went horribly wrong in 2018.

The stunt resulted in serious burns to a customer, and the incident made international headlines.

Salt Bae, however, refused to make a public statement or offer any form of apology, pretending as though it never happened.

This was just the beginning of a much darker side of his brand.

Employees started coming forward with disturbing reports of exploitation, harsh working conditions, and intimidation.

Lawsuits piled up, with former staff accusing Salt Bae of creating a toxic, fear-driven work culture.

Employees were allegedly forced to work long hours without overtime pay, subjected to harassment, and even made to stage fake lines outside the restaurant to make it appear busier than it was.

Former staff described him as a “petty tyrant,” obsessed with image and power, and reported being fired for minor mistakes like breaking a glass.

The Dictator’s Feast: Hosting a Venezuelan Dictator Amid Crisis
As Salt Bae’s image continued to crumble, one of his most controversial moves was hosting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in his Istanbul restaurant in 2018.

At the time, Venezuela was experiencing one of the worst economic crises in its history, with food shortages and widespread poverty.

Despite this, Salt Bae welcomed Maduro with open arms, posting videos online showcasing their lavish meal together.

This callous display of wealth in the face of global suffering sparked intense backlash from critics, including U.S.

Senator Marco Rubio, who condemned Salt Bae for his actions.

But Salt Bae, true to form, didn’t offer an apology.

Instead, he continued to flaunt his image as an untouchable celebrity.

This incident, combined with his growing reputation for exploiting workers, began to sour his public image for good.

The Final Straw: Crashing the FIFA World Cup and Public Humiliation
In December 2022, Salt Bae found himself at the center of another controversy—this time at the FIFA World Cup final in Qatar.

After Argentina’s historic victory over France, Salt Bae stormed the pitch, pestered players for photos, and even grabbed the World Cup trophy itself, acting as if he were part of the winning team.

The internet was outraged, with fans calling him a “clout chaser” and criticizing him for ruining the moment.

FIFA launched an investigation into the incident and banned Salt Bae from future events.

His behavior was universally condemned, and many felt that this was the ultimate symbol of his decline—a man who had once been an internet sensation now humiliated himself in front of the entire world.

The backlash was so intense that he was kicked out of the UEFA Champions League after-party in June 2023.

The Collapse: Restaurants Close, Social Media Relevance Fades
Salt Bae’s downfall continued in 2023 as several of his restaurants began to shut down, and his social media following waned.

His once-popular Dubai and London locations saw massive drops in profits, and his reputation as a celebrity chef was shattered.

The brand he built, which once seemed invincible, was now in decline.

His social media posts, once filled with flexing and flaunting, became irrelevant, and his empire slowly crumbled.

His arrogance and failure to adapt to criticism left him a pariah in the culinary world.

If he had only focused on the quality of his food and the well-being of his staff, he might have avoided this downfall.

Instead, his obsession with fame and fortune led to his undoing.