Nusret Gökçe, popularly known as Salt Bae, is one of the most popular chefs in the world. His peculiar way of salting pieces of meat or his ostentatious gold-plated steaks have made him go viral on more than one occasion and celebrities from all walks of life – actors like DiCaprio, footballers like Rakiti? or politicians of the stature of Maduro – have visited the steakhouses of its Nusr-Et chain. This chef of Turkish origin has a veritable empire, with establishments in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Greece and the United States. And now, he has chosen Eivissa to launch “the most important project in the life of he”.
Gökçe will not only limit itself to opening one of its restaurants on the white island, but will also build a large building with 51 apartments, four restaurants and an underground parking lot for 80 cars. A plan for which the chef will spend 100,000 million euros and which motivated his visit to Ibiza just a few days ago. This has been confirmed to this newspaper by sources close to Gökçe, who accompanied him in supervising the first phase of the works.
This macro project located between Joan Carles I and 8 d’ Agost avenues, near the Ibiza Gran Hotel, is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2025, so there are still many details to be known. But it is certain that among the four restaurants that it will house there will not be missing one of its steakhouses, the first in Spain. The other three spaces, according to the sources consulted, will belong to important brands, and there will be one dedicated to breakfast and snacks, at the request of the chef.
On his recent visit to Ibiza, Nusret Gökçe traveled with his private jet with his right-hand man, Emre, three collaborators and two photographers. The objective was to attend the start of the works, where some partners were waiting for him, the architect José Ribas – author of the Las Boas building and the Sir Joan hotel, both in Ibiza – and the public relations Carlos Martorell. There he talked with some of the workers and invited the entire group to eat at the Club Nautic restaurant. In the middle of the afternoon, he returned on his plane to Istanbul.
In this fleeting meeting, in addition to insisting that “this project in Ibiza is the most important of all”, he also said goodbye with the idea of ??opening another of his establishments in Madrid. With the opening of two steakhouses in Spain, the Salt Bae chain would consist of a total of 24 locations.
Nusret Gökçe was born in Erzurum, Turkey, and is of Kurdish origin. He left school early due to financial difficulties and began working as a butcher’s apprentice in the Turkish capital at a very young age. After visiting countries like Argentina and the USA, he returned home and opened his first restaurant. There are those who consider that his gastronomic proposal is expensive and ostentatious (it is said that the average ticket at his restaurants is more than $500), but that has not prevented his tables from hosting all kinds of personalities from the world of politics, sport and cinema.