Sam Fore: Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites & Tuk Tuk Snack Shop (Lexington, KY)

Sam Fore is a first-generation Sri Lankan-American chef from Lexington, Kentucky, and she is a force in what it means to be cooking in America right now. She started her pop up, Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites, in 2016, after brunches in her home outgrew her dining room. Her pop-ups are one of the few representations of Sri Lankan cuisine in the United States and are a reflection of her first-generation upbringing in the American South. Her dishes include her spin on Southern classics as well as new riffs on her family's, and her work has been featured in multiple national publications, including the cover of Food & Wine magazine in 2018. In 2020, she was selected as one of Southern Living's Cooks of the Year and this year, Sam has been honored by the James Beard Foundation as a Semi-Finalist for Best Chef: Southeast. Tuk Tuk Snack Shop, her first brick and mortar restaurant, is slated to open in Lexington by Fall 2023.