Miami commissioners are pouring you-know-what on the wound of the celebrity chef known as "Salt Bae."
Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday on a resolution condemning the chef, whose real name is Nusret Gokce, for what they say is his "insensitivity to the suffering of the people of Cuba and Venezuela."
"Salt Bae" came under fire earlier this month after footage emerged showing him serving Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. An Instagram video showed Maduro visiting the famed Nusr-Et steakhouse in Istanbul when he stopped over briefly in Turkey on the way home from a trip to China.
In the video, Maduro is seen puffing on a cigar while he and first lady Cilia Flores watch Gokce slicing meat. The post was later deleted. The Latin American country is not only suffering an economic crisis, but millions of Venezuelans have little access to food and medicine.
Gokce also posed as Fidel Castro in a photo posted on Instagram in 2016. He owns a steakhouse in Miami's Brickell area.
"It is a disgrace and an insult to our community that Chef Nusret Gökçe has shown publicly that he admires the dictators that have caused pain and death in Cuba and Venezuela," Commissioner Manolo Reyes said in a statement. "I thank my colleagues for showing their support to the Venezuelan and Cuban communities in this matter, and for standing united with those that denounce dictatorships in the region."
