Chef dubbed Salt Bae is going viral for his sensual videos chopping meat

Impact

Readers may have heard whispers of #SaltBae. They may have seen the now-viral video in which Salt Bae sprinkles salt over a bed of freshly sliced steak and marveled at his extreme and sensual pizazz. They may well have become ensnared in his thirst trap. But who is Salt Bae, really?

In real life, Salt Bae goes by his real name, Nusret Gökçe. According to one report, he found his way to butchery young: Lacking the money to fund an education, Gökçe became a butcher's assistant and ended up studying his craft in Argentina. A father of nine (yep), the meat magician now runs a chain of steak houses — Nusr-Et — in Turkey and Dubai, and earned his hashtag after the internet took notice of the below Instagram and immortalized its star as a meme.  

Gökçe's special talent for tossing salt like a handful of sparkles, his tender yet firm way with the meats, the flare with which he wields a knife and his readiness to take off his top and pose with a jack hammer have the internet in a full swoon. 

And also cracking jokes.

Never change, #SaltBae. Never change.