--- title: Salt Bae Meme Portrait Nurset Gokce PHOTO description: After a chef went viral for his flair with sprinkling salt, he's now the subject of a portrait created using real salt. canonical: https://time.com/4643483/salt-bae-meme-portrait/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-23T18:18:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:22.257Z og:title: The Salt Bae Meme Has Inspired a Portrait Made of Real Salt og:description: Art imitating life on the Internet og:url: https://time.com/4643483/salt-bae-meme-portrait/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Salt Bae Meme Has Inspired a Portrait Made of Real Salt twitter:description: Art imitating life on the Internet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Someone Made the Salt Bae Meme Into a Portrait Using Real Salt > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 23, 2017 6:18 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 23, 2017 6:18 PM UTC The [first meme of 2017](http://time.com/4641016/kelly-anne-conway-memes/) came to us courtesy of [a mesmerizing video of Turkish chef Nurset Gokce](https://www.instagram.com/p/BO9dI9ujWNI/) that showcased his flair for sprinkling salt on slices of steak and which earned him [the enviable title of #saltbae](http://people.com/food/salt-bae-turkish-steak-chef-internet-food-trend/). Salt Bae’s influence, however, has inspired more than just memes — he’s now the subject of a commemorative portrait by artist Allan Pachino Wallace, who painstakingly recreated Gokce’s now-iconic culinary skills using real salt. Wallace shared the hyper-realistic sprinkled salt art piece on Instagram, where it’s garnered nearly 27,000 likes and more than 1,708 comments in the four days since he posted it last Wednesday. Wallace also shared a photo of him cleaning up the portrait on Sunday by sweeping up the artfully arranged salt. 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