Sam Fore is a Sri Lankan-American chef and recipe developer based in Lexington, Kentucky. Her pop up, Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites, crisscrosses the country to bring her Sri Lanka meets the South dishes to diners far and wide. She started the pop-up in 2016 after traditional Sri Lankan brunches in her home outgrew her dining room, and in September 2023, Fore opened her first brick-and-mortar, Tuk Tuk Snack Shop. Fore’s cooking reflects her Sri Lankan upbringing in the American South; her dishes include her spin on Southern classics and new riffs on her family’s time-tested recipes. Her recipes can be found in multiple national publications and across the web — her take on tomato pie graced the cover of Food & Wine in 2019. She was named one of Plate Magazine’s Chefs to Watch (2018), was one of Southern Living’s inaugural Cooks of the Year (2020) and was named one of Taste of the South’s Taste 50 (2022). In 2021, she joined the cast of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, which airs nationally on PBS stations. In 2023, Fore was named a Finalist for Best Chef: Southeast by the James Beard Foundation Awards. In 2025, Tuk Tuk Snack Shop was named to the Garden & Gun Hot List of the 31 best new restaurants in the South, before closing in November of 2025.
7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
