Communist Leader Eats Gold-Covered Steak With Salt Bae After Visiting Karl Marx’s Grave

Celebrity chef Nusret Gokce, also known as “Salt Bae,” fed gold-plated steak to To Lam, a leader of Vietnam’s Communist Party, after Lam led a visit to Karl Marx’s grave on Nov. 2.

A video posted to Gokce’s Tik Tok account showed him hand-feeding gold-plated steak to Lam, who gave a thumbs up. Gokce deleted the video after receiving criticism on social media, BBC News reported.

A widely shared receipt from the restaurant Oct. 8 showed a meal for four with drinks costing 37,000 pounds (more than $50,000). Lam’s official salary as minister is less than $800 per month, according to Vice.

Lam was leading a delegation at the COP26 climate conference in Scotland, Vice reported.

While in the United Kingdom Lam visited Karl Marx’s grave with several high-ranking officials. The Vietnamese government’s blog post about the visit called Marx a “philosophical and ideological genius” and said the delegation was meant to pay “respect to those based on whose theories the Vietnamese people overthrew systems of oppression ruled by colonialists and imperialists in the past.”

Vietnam faced significant food shortages and economic disaster during 2021 as lockdowns continued and COVID ravaged the population, The Guardian reported.