chefs dish with sam fore

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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.

Fore’s cooking reflects her Sri Lankan upbringing in the American South. She’s spent the last several years honing her craft and developing her unique cooking style; her dishes include her spin on Southern classics as well as new riffs on her family's time-tested recipes. Chef Sam’s

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 Taste50 (2022). In 2021 she joined the cast of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, which airs nationally on PBS stations. In 2023, Fore was honored by the James Beard Foundation Awards as a Finalist for Best Chef: Southeast.

Chef Sam has been a huge fan of Springer Mountain Farms chicken for many years. She is finally taking the plunge and plans to open her first brick and mortar location this week in Lexington.

We asked Chef Sam to DISH on the new restaurant and her plans for future travel:

How would you describer Sri Lankan Food and the style you’ve developed fusing it with your southern upbringing?

Sri Lankan food is really a “choose your own adventure” type of food offering endless experimentation for your pallet. Taking my Sri Lankan heritage and melding it with traditional southern recipes continues to be an adventure. Menu items are categorized into sandwiches, big snacks, sides, bakery items and desserts. One of the stars of the menu at Tuk Tuk Snack Shop will be The Webster, named after my dear departed pup. He loved chicken more than anything else! For The Webster, we’ll be using Springer Mountain Farms boneless skinless thighs and marinating them in our signature Tuk Tuk Fried Chicken Spice and buttermilk, then deep frying them to crispy perfection which will be topped with garlicky gravy and coconut sambol. It will be served on our house made rolls. Other notable menu items include The Duke - an award-winning grilled cheese with tamarind caramelized onions, Vadai “corndogs” wrapped with lentil fritter batter, The Tuey (pronounced 2-E) – a BBQ style jackfruit sandwich, The Sterling – a house baked bun packed with spiced pulled pork and topped with Sri Lankan style pickled carrots, plus rice bowls, house-made bread with sambols, butter cake, milk tea ice cream and more.

ou can recreate your own Tuk Tuk Fried Chicken with Chef Sam’s signature spice blend at Spicewalla here including a bonus recipe from Chef Fore to create her out-of-this-world Party Wing Recipe.

Now that you have a brick & mortar location, will you be rooted a little more firmly in Lexington, or will you still venture out to do pop ups and guest chef at other restaurants like you’ve been doing the last few years?

I’ll definitely be in Lexington more often, but with the incredible team I’ve put together for Tuk Tuk Snack Shop, I know it will run exceptionally well even when I’m traveling for my next food adventure!

When will Tuk Tuk Snack Shop open for business?

If all goes according to plan, we should be open on Friday, September 22nd at 11 AM! The address is 124 Malabu Drive, Ste 110, Lexington, Kentucky 40503. Hours of operation will be 11 AM to 8 PM Mondays and Wednesdays through Saturdays, and 11 AM to 3:30 PM on Sundays. Tuk Tuk Snack Shop will be closed on Tuesdays.