Chef Gareth Mason has mocked Salt Bae’s expensive gold leaf-wrapped dishes by creating his own 24-carat encrusted Lancashire-inspired menu for a mere snippet of the price.
But while the high-flying Turkish butcher-turned-steak monger charges around £850 for some of his steaks, Mason’s dishes were valued at just 5p by a local jewellery store.
Mason has coated his signature Whist Pies in cheap gold leaf, while he has also done the same with chips, bacon, sausage butties and even carrots, in an attempt to poke fun at his more famous counterpart.
He said: "It's more Morecambe Bay than Salt Bae. We've got the traditional Lancashire dishes covered in gold for a fraction of the price you'd pay at his restaurant."
Nusret Gokce, 38, who is better known as Salt Bae, has fans falling over themselves to lap up his extravagant gold-covered steaks and burgers at his London restaurant.
While the restaurant has been slammed by critics, there is no shortage of eager celebs queueing up to pay eye-watering prices and posting about it online.
Reality TV star Gemma Collins was one of the first to bag a table and ranked the experience “ten out of ten” despite nearly choking when she saw the £1,450 bill, while former glamour model Danielle Lloyd treated herself to a £100 gold-wrapped burger, later admitting it was “really expensive”, but worth it for “the experience”.
By contrast, Mason charges £12 for a pie and pickle platter at the Absolute Bar and Bistro in Westhoughton, Bolton, where he is head chef.
Gareth, a father-of-two, added: "It just shows that wrapping food in gold is sheer stupidity.
"There's no price that can justify it. It adds nothing at all to the food, it tastes of nothing and it just dissolves on contact. It's just a gimmick for appearances.
"Getting a steak and wrapping it in gold doesn't make it worth £800. There has to be a barrier of stupidity.
"This guy is making himself a multi-millionaire from conning people. The joke is on the customer if they're willing to pay that."
Gareth currently has no plans to sell the gold-sheeted food to punters, but said if he did, he'd charge around £100.
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