“Vivian Howard met Fore at Brown in the South in Asheville, N.C., a food festival celebrating the influence and experience of South Asian chefs in the South. Being with the Asian chefs was like finding a family, Howard explains in the show, and “Sam was the fun cousin I’d never met, I wanted to spend more time with her.” So, Howard sent Fore a message saying she’d like to visit Kentucky and come to one of her pop- ups. Other people usually just say, “sure, let me know when you want to come,” Howard said, but Fore responded with “a torrent of texts ... Sam had the whole thing lined up in a matter of eight hours.””