An evening with Nusret Gökçe, the jumping salt chef loved by celebrities from all over the world

The Doha Sheraton is located at West Bay. If you see the classic postcards of Qatar and its skyscrapers with suggestive light effects, it is there that this building with its suggestive pyramid shape is located which has 371 rooms and 26 conference rooms. For a long time it was the only luxury hotel in this city. In fact, if you search effortlessly on Google, there are photos from 1980 that show it as the only building that stands a few meters from the sea at the entrance to a desert.

Over the years and exponential growth of this city, the Sheraton Doha has become trapped between dozens of dazzling towers. However, this hotel has never ceased to be a magnet for tourists. There are nine restaurants. And there is a very special one that everyone wants to go to. he is the famous Nusr-et which became the go-to place for celebrities from all over the world.

Everyone wants to try their exquisite dishes. everyone wants to meet Nusret Gokce, the Turkish chef who has nearly 50 million Instagram followers and who cooks the dishes. everyone wants it Bae of salt, as they call themselves, approach their tables and don nitrile gloves to elegantly cut a piece of meat to the right point with a super sharp knife. everyone wants it Bae of saltborn 39 years ago in Erzurum, about 1,200 kilometers from Istanbul, take a generous handful of grains of coarse salt and toss them in your particular style on the freshly sliced ​​fetas. All.

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Wednesday evening, the first day since November 20 without football matches in this exotic World Cup in Qatar, the brief rain that surprised the tourists in the afternoon is now history. There is a light breeze that beats the humidity in the West Bay area, just steps away from the sea and to the cornicea pedestrian promenade which is one of the many points of attraction of this city in eternal construction.

Getting to the Sheraton, Nusr-Et’s home, wasn’t easy. Traffic is never easy in Doha. The table was reserved for 11.15pm, the penultimate shift of the day. After walking down a long red-carpeted corridor, with lavish decoration like in the eighties, an open-air corridor takes you to the feeling of the restaurant. The place was full of Argentines. They have already made themselves heard from the hall. A few minutes earlier, in that same corridor, he had passed Marcello Tinelli and his son who are in Qatar enjoying the World Cup. A little later he arrived sothe influencer followed by millions of teenagers and who dictates the agenda from social networks. The excuse was to go to dinner to try to get an interview with Nusret. The information we had made us assume that the mission was not going to be easy. Every night is different.

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Let’s go back to the beginning. Nusret Gökçe is about to turn 40. Her uniform consists of round dark glasses, a tight white T-shirt, and black pants. Neatly coiffed and with his hair up, he goes from place to place when diners order the most expensive dishes on the menu. There he is called to do his show of him that does not stop going viral. The shot, if you look for it on your Instagram account, is the day of the visit of Diego Maradona in 2018. An epic moment. The moment of cutting the meat and throwing the salt is a memory that everyone would like to have. The cellphones are put into video camera mode and the sequence immediately turns into history. It’s time that Bae of salt agree to take pictures. patient and kindeach takes the memory of the chef of the moment.

But not so long ago nobody wanted to take pictures with Nusret. He hasn’t had an easy life. The son of a miner and a housewife, his family left Erzurum for Istanbul when he was only three years old. And in sixth grade she had to leave school to start helping out with his household finances.

He did everything, but fate had prepared a job for him that would serve as a springboard: a clerk in a butcher’s shop. He did all the lower ones until he became manager of an area of ​​the company. By then he had already become a goldsmith of sharp knives. Restless and resilient, though without fame or money, Nusret began to dabble in gastronomy. He was still far from being Salt Bae. So it was that, after his military service, he decided to go to the United States and Argentina to learn the secrets of meat and the different ways of cooking it.

-What do you remember about your time in Argentina?

-I love Argentina. I was there in 2007. Zero English, zero Spanish and less than $500 in my pocket. I went mostly for my job. I went to the countryside to learn about meat and how to cook it. I went to restaurants where I worked for free to learn the trade. I knew the basics, but wanted to learn something different. You know: Argentines love meat as much as they love soccer and tango.

The passage through Argentina and the United States marked a before and after in his life. is that this self-made man He put his own stamp and creativity on everything he learned to the point of becoming a master with rarely seen cooking and presentation techniques.

an old customer Mithat Erdem helped him open his first restaurant in Istanbul in 2010. She called him, vaguely, Nusr-Et. His style and his personalized attention have made his tasty menu based on grilled meats stand out, accompanied only by salads and fries. Word of mouth has started to work in his favour. And so it was that fame began to caress him. The image of him multiplies in magazines and newspapers. And celebrities have chosen him as their favorite chef.

Hand in hand with a Turkish business group, Nusr-Et began to multiply. In 2014 he opened his first restaurant abroad. It was in Dubai, UAE. And little by little it spread: Abu Dhabi, Doha, Miami, New York, Dallas, Mykonos, Boston, Beverly Hills, London and Riyadh.

-Are you planning to open a restaurant in Argentina?

-Yes, it is an idea that I have and that I want to realize. I’m very busy right now, but it’s something I definitely want to do. I love Argentina.

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Tinelli and Coscu weren’t the only celebrities who stopped by Nusr-Et’s Dohana branch these days. On Sunday, the day after Argentina beat Australia in the round of 16 of the World Cup, Lisandro Martínez and Nicolás Tagliafico, two players of the national team, took advantage of the day off to learn about the eccentric culinary arts of Bae of salt.

-How do you experience the World Cup? With all the people who have come here to Doha and who, among other things, want to get to know you, how are you living this moment?

-Fantastic organization, fantastic our restaurant. Extremely epic all and all.

-Do you like football?

-I love football.

Do you like Messi? Did you go to a World Cup match?

-I love Argentina. I love Maradona.

-What do you remember about his visit to your restaurant?

-He was an extremely nice guy. He never said no. He was humble. He had his feet on the ground. He was different, you know?

It was clearly different.

– Yes beautiful.

-And do you know Messi? Have you ever come to eat in your restaurants?

-Messi also came. Many Argentines have come here…

-The other day the president of the AFA (Claudio Chiqui Tapia) came…

Yes, I’ve talked to him. He promised me that if Argentina wins, the whole team will come to Nusr-Et.

Free or will you have to pay?

-We’ll see (and think a bit). If they win they are invited. I promise if there are champions, you’ll bring your whole team here. All free, all “gold”.

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Eating at Nusr-Et is not cheap. The most expensive plates are those with a gold bath. The ones he will cook and offer to the national team if the adventure has a happy ending on 18 December. It has tables outside and also has a saloon with an open kitchen where you can see the maneuvers of Bae of salt and their employees. The menu no longer includes only roasts. One can order an appetizer or salads with prices ranging from an arugula salad ($18) to some red prawns ($67). There’s also meat sushi (three pieces for US$30) and there’s also grilled organic salmon (US$54) and smoked chicken (US$62).

But the joke is going to eat the house specialty which is grilled red meat. There is a scale that goes from meatballs with fries (US$40) to bife de chorizo ​​dorado (US$300). The roast cutlet, the one in which the bones come out on their own after eight hours of cooking and which drove Maradona crazy, is a little cheaper ($227).

Those who order the most expensive dishes are the ones who get the bonus track of the show Bae of salt. The rest, to which the savings bank does not give, must be content with the fact that the one at the next table has a more generous wallet. You can drink wine, of course. The glass of red, half, is about $30. Curiosity: the house wine is from an Argentinian cellar.

There are also desserts. And there is a very particular one that is served in this sought-after restaurant and it is called baklava, which is a phyllo dough with syrup and pistachio paste accompanied by vanilla ice cream which is freshly prepared. That sweet treat costs $16.

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Nusret, with a smile on her shoulders, passes the tables over and over to serve her customers. Ask, after the interview, whether the paper has an online version or just a print edition. Warm regards. He says “I love Argentina” three more times. Take a photo with everyone. After a while the maitre d’ of the restaurant approaches. He please ask for the reporter’s phone number to upload his contact number. The order is from Nusret who please ask that once the note is published we will send you the link.

The restaurant closes around 1am. In the Sheraton on the coast of the Persian Gulf, the music is blaring. There is a private party. Entrance costs like a glass of wine. Like Nusr-Et, it is full of Argentines. But that will be another story.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.