Thread by @thetimes

Two years ago, a video of a Turkish butcher flamboyantly seasoning a steak went viral

Now Nusret Gokce, aka #SaltBae, is a multimillionaire with a chain of restaurants

The Times met the man behind the hype (most of it, his own)
thetimes.co.uk/article/salt-b…

Gokce, a 37-year-old former butcher from Istanbul, had already opened eight of his Nusr-Et restaurants, including Istanbul, Bodrum, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, when he broke the internet in January 2017 with a video of him slicing and dicing an Ottoman steak

Now he's opened a restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, with £630 steaks on the menu.

https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1443187483248926728

“In the old days, nobody said that they were a butcher,” he says. “They would feel not good about it. In Turkey, you would ask a kid, ‘What would you like to be?’ He or she would say, ‘A doctor, an engineer, astronaut.’"

"Now everybody wants to be a butcher because of me. Now, if you ask a kid, they want to be Salt Bae. They see me as an idol. I’m an inspiration to a lot of people in a very short period of time.”

What about this frequently reported assertion that he has 13 children?

“I have 14 children,” he grins.

Really? “I have 14 children,” he says again, slowly. “By next year, I will have 18.” The penny drops. He means his restaurants.

Still, what about relationships? “The person I’m going to date, she’s going to be upset because I don’t have the time. I work until 3am.”

Another intense stare. “I like to make women happy, not unhappy.”

Our writer @mulkerrins opted for the more modest £220 tomahawk steak at his Manhattan restaurant when she met him

"As the steak is fed into my mouth with his fingers, I understand that I am now part of the show, too."

Read the full interview with Nusret Gokce aka #SaltBae, the internet's favourite butcher: thetimes.co.uk/article/salt-b…