Born in kentucky to sri lankan parents, samantha fore masterfully blends southern and south asian ingredients and cooking techniques to create dishes that represent her background. At first glance, this recipe for poached shrimp curry with coconut rice middlins might look like traditional shrimp and grits, but its flavored with lemongrass, garlic, ginger, madras curry powder, and lime. Fore says, this recipe is a callback to my childhood when my mother would make beautifully scented and spiced curries. Fore uses creamy rice middlins as the base for this curry, but you can substitute rice or grits if you prefer. Through her lexington-based traveling pop-up tuk tuk lex, fore serves up other southern favorites that nod to her upbringing like fried chicken brined in a buttermilk-curry mixture. Serving delicious food isnt fores only mission with tuk tuk, she aims to expand peoples minds and palates too. If i can push those borders a bit, then its all worth it, she says. For this reason, and many more, fore is one of our 2020 cooks of the year.