A lot at steak | Are hospitality bosses like Salt Bae harder to cancel?

Every few years, a meme will take the internet by storm. In 2017, Nusret Gökçe, better known as Salt Bae, became an online sensation because of videos of him sprinkling salt on a steak by allowing it to slide down his arm.

Salt Bae, who has over 51m followers on Instagram, is a Turkish butcher and chef with 22 steakhouses across the world. But former employees of the salt-sprinkling meme star have filed seven lawsuits in two cities against him for allegations of sexual and racial discrimination, wage theft and for cultivating a “hyper-masculine culture.”

According to the Insider, a former bartender at one of his restaurants compared Gökçe to a dictator while another former employee compared its workplace culture to The Hunger Games, because workers never knew if they were going to get fired on their shift.

Amongst the allegations, four former employees have said they had tip money withheld from them and were sacked when they complained. Former workers told the Insider that Gökçe whipped up a “hyper-masculine” culture where female employees were made to dress as though they were “going to the club,” and that his world was “nothing but Instagram and fame.”