Ever since George Costanza snuck a pastrami sandwich into the sack on Seinfeld, salted meats and sex have existed as strange yet alluring bedfellows. Now, a Turkish chef named Nusret Gökçe is once again redefining the term “food porn,” and earning himself the title #SaltBae along the way.
Though Gökçe has been sensually chopping steaks on Instagram for roughly a year—earning himself more than a million followers in the process—the Internet got a hold of his tantalizing videos last week and quickly turned the ponytail-rocking meat maestro into a meme. Gökçe, who owns a chain of steakhouses called Nusr-Et in Turkey, can be seen massaging cattle and smacking slabs of raw beef, but a clip in which he extravagantly showers some steak in salt has social media all hot and bothered.
Over the weekend, #SaltBae quickly began trending on Twitter in the U.S., with users re-purposing the clip to fit all kinds of scenarios. But more than anything, people just seem impressed with Gökçe's ability to make the most basic cooking skills feel like meat-centric porn.
[via Instagram/@nusr_et]