The story of Salt Bae

We all know Salt Bae through his viral series of videos on the internet for his style of a sprinkling of salt. However, he was not so famous before, which considers us to look into the early childhood of Nusret Gokce.

When and where was Salt Bae born?

Nusret Gokce aka Salt Bae was born in 1983 in Erzurum, Turkey. His parents were Fatma Gokce (Mother) and Faik Gokce (Father).

At the age of two years, his family moved from Erzurum to the coast of Darica, where Gokce was raised along with his three brothers Ugar, Ozgar, and Erman.

What do their parents do?

Gokce was born into a low-income family where his parents didn’t make much money. So, it was always in a financial crisis for survival. Gokce’s father was a miner, and his mother was a homemaker.

When does Salt Bae start working?

Gokce lived a life for survival with his family, and in few years, when he was 13 years old, he had to stop his education and start working forcefully.

Where did Salt Bae start working?

During his poverty, he wanted to change that reality and want to be successful and dreamed of having a restaurant and started working as a Butcher’s apprentice to transform his wishes into reality.

And, then he spent 13 years of his life working as a butcher’s apprentice at Kadikoy district, Istanbul, and other Turkish Steakhouses.

Where Salt Bae traveled to gain knowledge?

Gokce had enough knowledge about butchering in Turkey, and now he wanted to acquire international expertise about meat. And, this is when he traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to learn about the meat industry—after that, he moved towards the United States for “Meat Tourism.”

When is the turning point for Salt Bae?

After acquiring enough knowledge, he returned to Turkey to start his Istinye Park Shopping Mall restaurant in Turkey. It is a small restaurant with eight tables and ten employees.

The turning point came when Ferik Sahenk, a Turkish businessman, came to dine in his restaurant, was impressed with it, and decided to invest in Gokce to give ample capital to start-up restaurants in different locations like Ankara, Turkey, Doha, and Dubai.

And now, Gokce has 18 restaurants all over the world with more than 700 employees.