Blood, Guts and Glory – the Hungry Influencer’s Tasty Salt Bae Dish
Written by Joy Archer
Deep in the caves of digital time (era 2013 AD – Algorithmus pre-Demonitus) one finds a primal, if blunt, stab at self-expression which, perhaps better than any stylized post to follow, captures the inner workings of a man who has triumphantly re-branded the act of butchery into an app-etising Epicurean spectacle, served daily via his famed Instagram feed to nearly 48M flesh-obsessed fans. The man in question – the wildly successful meat and muscle marketeer with the perfectly seasoned soundbites and strut – is of course Nusret Gökçe, aka Salt Bae. The ancient post shows da Vinci’s Mona Lisa – her enigmatic smile presiding over a thick slab of raw meat – Nusret’s meaty memento mori – writ large, his longing to be celebrated as an artist of the highest order, famed for sharing his own evocative muse with the world, with panache, and on his own terms.
He has, by all social media metrics, succeeded. Since becoming a viral meme in 2017, Nusret has graduated from being captured in Insta moments flicking through men’s fashion mags to being shot on gorgeous private jets, whilst studiously studying the FT. With his new London restaurant, Nusr-et, reportedly raking in a cool £7M in sales within four months, one can well believe that Nusret’s financial education might now need to extend to, say, how to buy shares in REITS to recession-proof a HNW personal portfolio, vs, say, weighing the pros and cons of investing in a cashmere jumper.
Flash and cash aside, a man occasionally enjoys the satisfaction of being publicly outed as performing ever so slightly a cut above his peers, and that’s where industry awards come in. In 2019, at WIBA’s glittering gathering of the who’s who of the influencer firmament in Cannes, Nusret was deservedly crowned ‘Best Celebrity Influencer’ – an accolade which did much to further cement his role as a true titan of the industry.
Nusret has come a long way since puckering up to carcasses for likes, but not so far as some with a less determined attitude to scrolling might think. Nothing is guaranteed. Still, if you begin at the beginning, it’s easy to follow how Nusret’s story – that of The Clever Butcher of Erzurum has unfolded and by what means he finessed this role into that of a lead character on the world’s stage. He did it by being a bloody good chef, that’s how!
Back in the day when Nusret was flying cattle class and awkwardly faux-posing in front of meat chillers whilst perusing GQ, he was already cooking for the likes of John Malkovich. Yes, youthful Johnny Depp looks and a genuine affinity with fellow two-legged carnivores (not to mention a much less cruel Instagram algorithm in those days) certainly didn’t harm his chances of blowing up. But the talent and passion came first. His love for the restaurant trade, the clientele and the people working alongside him isn’t contrived. It was there from the start and it helps. (Writer’s side note: To draw people into your story, producing content around what you actually know inside out is life. Never forget it!)
Nusret’s extrapolated takeaway for influencers in the wing is to, yes, glow up, but do so genuinely. Post religiously about what truly makes your heart flutter (red meat!), esoteric though it may seem. That has certainly got to be step one on your journey to world domination and your very own WIBA podium moment. Chances are, if you keep a GQ (or Vogue) to hand, you’ll find a loyal fan base that sticks around and grows as you stylishly entertain them with an admittedly more curated version of who you are. If, like Nusret, your day job and your burning passion coincide, then so much the better!
Then, there is the showmanship. Not every bona fide influencer is a showman of Nusret’s commitment, nor do they necessarily need to be. It just so happens that as his fame has grown, his captions and hashtag game have remained marked by their studious indifference. Meanwhile his well-rehearsed culinary performance art – the now legendary exaggerated salt sprinkle and ubiquitous circus-inspired act of gourmand knife play – have become slicker productions. These ‘bits’ are a world apart from his initial, more naturalistic persona of spontaneous hugger of babies and footie chums. For the most part, that guy is now gone – at least from public view.
Surely every would-be influencer scrolls through the feeds of their heroes and sheroes trying to pinpoint the exact moment when the self-conscious grappling of trying metamorphosises into the actual honest-to-goodness reality of full-blown being. The moment when the needle shifts. The moment when a stylist becomes a non-negotiable member of staff.
Forensic analysis reveals that seminal day in Nusret’s life to be some time around (or perhaps almost exactly) the 24th December 2014. Eagle-eyed scrollers will spot that #dubai makes a notable, if non-committal, debut, as do the ubiquitous sunglasses and slicker, more considered high-life shots. In those days they featured falconry and a Harry Styles-esque makeover, typified by a vast array of floral tops that speak to a masculinity so secure in its popular appeal that it is prepared to be downright pretty.
By the dawn of 2016, the shirts are deliciously unbuttoned to the midriff – if worn at all – and by April 2017, Nusret is a full-blown Instagram being. Since then, he has been a marvel of art reflecting life reflected in indoor sunglasses – one man’s fully realised artistic vision. His medium meat, not paint. His canvas, any one of his world-class chef’s kitchens, where his professional filming crew capture the hi-jinks of his fancy flip maneuvers with slabs of ‘meat sushi’. A celebrity in his own right, his iconic gestures are parodied by old-school celebrities like P-Diddy, who cannot afford to be salty about sharing the spotlight with the crème of social media influencers, but see the good sense in affiliation with this powerful new breed of rainmakers.
One wonders just how involved a skilled PR team might have been in refining this polished and directional sea change that sees Nusret twisting his antics into the mini-cinematic affectations which have become his trademarks. Did he seek consultation for how to crook his now-famous arm just so, or how to wolf whistle after stacking a perfect burger? How about that vaguely Sylvester Stallone thing he does, talking out of the side of his cheek? And if, perchance, Nusret’s meteoric next-level success, which we are all eating up, is down to some hidden team daily orchestrating his videography, wardrobe and those big-business FT-worthy moves, are they also discussing just how much salt is just enough and how much is ruinous for an already well-seasoned dish?
The Nicolás Maduro feast almost certainly called for more hot water than Nusret et al. anticipated. Reputable news outlets like the BBC pounced on the story and some ardent fans unfollowed. This episode laid bare the potentially harsh reality of the global influencer – the world is always watching.
Perhaps when one gets to the point of having a 40M-plus following, this question of ‘getting it right’ for fear of losing what you have built is less of a concern (though a wise influencer will take note of the Irina Shayk debacle). For the budding influencer though, fear of mis-steps which turn off or – worse yet – do not repeatedly turn on a following that has come to expect content stability whilst at the same time addicted to routine novelty, must be constant.
In an era where regular evolution of body and soul is expected, if not outright demanded, perennially popular influential achievers like Nusret serve not only as sources of personal entertainment, but as budding influencers’ templates for success. They are never to be emulated, but rather to be closely observed for signs of some standard rules that may be extrapolated to chart a successful journey to the top.
Then, there is the showmanship. Not every bona fide influencer is a showman of Nusret’s commitment, nor do they necessarily need to be. It just so happens that as his fame has grown, his captions and hashtag game have remained marked by their studious indifference. Meanwhile his well-rehearsed culinary performance art – the now legendary exaggerated salt sprinkle and ubiquitous circus-inspired act of gourmand knife play – have become slicker productions. These ‘bits’ are a world apart from his initial, more naturalistic persona of spontaneous hugger of babies and footie chums. For the most part, that guy is now gone – at least from public view.
Surely every would-be influencer scrolls through the feeds of their heroes and sheroes trying to pinpoint the exact moment when the self-conscious grappling of trying metamorphosises into the actual honest-to-goodness reality of full-blown being. The moment when the needle shifts. The moment when a stylist becomes a non-negotiable member of staff.
Forensic analysis reveals that seminal day in Nusret’s life to be some time around (or perhaps almost exactly) the 24th December 2014. Eagle-eyed scrollers will spot that #dubai makes a notable, if non-committal, debut, as do the ubiquitous sunglasses and slicker, more considered high-life shots. In those days they featured falconry and a Harry Styles-esque makeover, typified by a vast array of floral tops that speak to a masculinity so secure in its popular appeal that it is prepared to be downright pretty.
By the dawn of 2016, the shirts are deliciously unbuttoned to the midriff – if worn at all – and by April 2017, Nusret is a full-blown Instagram being. Since then, he has been a marvel of art reflecting life reflected in indoor sunglasses – one man’s fully realised artistic vision. His medium meat, not paint. His canvas, any one of his world-class chef’s kitchens, where his professional filming crew capture the hi-jinks of his fancy flip maneuvers with slabs of ‘meat sushi’. A celebrity in his own right, his iconic gestures are parodied by old-school celebrities like P-Diddy, who cannot afford to be salty about sharing the spotlight with the crème of social media influencers, but see the good sense in affiliation with this powerful new breed of rainmakers.
One wonders just how involved a skilled PR team might have been in refining this polished and directional sea change that sees Nusret twisting his antics into the mini-cinematic affectations which have become his trademarks. Did he seek consultation for how to crook his now-famous arm just so, or how to wolf whistle after stacking a perfect burger? How about that vaguely Sylvester Stallone thing he does, talking out of the side of his cheek? And if, perchance, Nusret’s meteoric next-level success, which we are all eating up, is down to some hidden team daily orchestrating his videography, wardrobe and those big-business FT-worthy moves, are they also discussing just how much salt is just enough and how much is ruinous for an already well-seasoned dish?
The Nicolás Maduro feast almost certainly called for more hot water than Nusret et al. anticipated. Reputable news outlets like the BBC pounced on the story and some ardent fans unfollowed. This episode laid bare the potentially harsh reality of the global influencer – the world is always watching.
Perhaps when one gets to the point of having a 40M-plus following, this question of ‘getting it right’ for fear of losing what you have built is less of a concern (though a wise influencer will take note of the Irina Shayk debacle). For the budding influencer though, fear of mis-steps which turn off or – worse yet – do not repeatedly turn on a following that has come to expect content stability whilst at the same time addicted to routine novelty, must be constant.
In an era where regular evolution of body and soul is expected, if not outright demanded, perennially popular influential achievers like Nusret serve not only as sources of personal entertainment, but as budding influencers’ templates for success. They are never to be emulated, but rather to be closely observed for signs of some standard rules that may be extrapolated to chart a successful journey to the top.
A clutch of PR firms are only too happy to be paid handsomely to gather this vital moving-target data and to help would-be global influencers make all the right moves to secure their upward trajectory. As with any industry, the small handful of successful geniuses behind the scenes landing the biggest financial bags for their clients tends to be a closely guarded secret – hush-hush names that are typically only whispered in closed circles, amongst those in the know.
Grappling with an understanding of PR is but one of the many professional challenges that an influencer faces. Not everyone would have the PR nous to survive a Maduro-gate and not every influencer started posting in 2013 when Instagram was a far less crowded marketplace.
In fact, besides the epic task of finessing ever-changing algorithms, today’s influencer must come to terms with a long list of topics, from online anti-bullying to business etiquette.
As for Nusret, of late, he has been wise enough to stay out of hot water and for the most part, seems to be focusing his boundless energy on documenting for the ’Gram his opening of cult restaurants and a gym for the body beautiful. He still can’t resist taking his shirt off – and perhaps it is here we can pause to enjoy our second most juicy takeaway from this insanely successful influencer cum restaurateur: it doesn’t hurt to be a dish.