This nation of meat lovers doesn't need a £600 steak

With the UK arm reporting a £5.5m loss and US branches shut, Hannah Twiggs asks what Salt Bae's downfall reveals about the end of food as flex - and the rise of quiet luxury

- Hannah Twiggs

You know the video. A man in mirrored sunglasses, white T-shirt stretched tight, pinches salt between his fingers and lets it cascade down his forearm in slow motion to land on a slab of meat, like fairy dust for the rich. Even if you've never eaten at one of his restaurants, you've probably copied the gesture at your summer barbecue. That man - Nusret Gökçe, better known as Salt Bae - built a global steakhouse empire off the back of that clip. His now-infamous London outpost in Knightsbridge opened in 2021 to viral fanfare, serving £680 wagyu strip loins and £50 gold-leaf baklava to footballers and finance bros. But this week, new filings revealed that his UK business had posted a £5.5m loss, despite turnover rising to just over £10m. His US arm is faring no better: it once boasted seven branches, but only two remain, in New York and Miami.

The rest - Beverly Hills, Dallas, Las Vegas, Boston, even another in New York - have all closed. Exceptional expenses from those closures total £6.6m, according to filings reported by Restaurant Online. The brand insists it's "stabilising". But for a man whose career was built on spectacle, the silence is telling.

Salt Bae's virality was never really about food. Let's face it, his videos went viral because they were, well, weird. Theatrical, sensual, faintly absurd. Few actually went to Nusr-Et for dinner; they went to see what a £600 steak and a viral man with a salt fetish looked like up close.