“When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip.”

– Ignatius Reilly, of John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces.

At first, naming a food truck after John Kennedy Toole’s infamously bloated main character sounds like a terrible idea – after all, he’s best known for his disgusting demeanor, his judgmental worldview, and his inability to cope with change.

But he was also known for his enthusiasm for street food.

Like many driven by the creative nature of culinary arts, Marcus Day knew that working in a restaurant kitchen was part of the package. Every day, future chefs are faced with the reality of the field – high volume output, flame-retardant clothing, burn scars – while working toward dreams of crafting creative menus.

Day has worked at the prestigious Jacmel Inn in Hammond, and was on the startup crew for John Besh’s Steakhouse in New Orleans. He learned a lot of things in those kitchens.

“Jacmel was where I learned most of the classic Italian cooking, like making pasta,” said Day. “They put me on the pasta station, and I’ve never made pasta before. And they’re like, ‘Well, we have this many reservations, here’s all the stuff you need, get to it.’ It was sink-or-swim, which is a good way to learn something.”

After that kind of learning curve, Day knew he could do a menu his own way: from scratch. With partners at Curbside Burger and The Cuban Connection, which both create their menu from scratch, Day worked out a fresh take on street food.

“All of the ingredients we use are from local farmers and produce markets,” he explained, “and a lot of it comes from my garden.”

The alternating menu shows it, too. On the menu last week was Beef Bolognese, with grass-fed beef, handmade fettuccine, fresh mint, Pecorino Romano, and lemon; and back by popular demand was the Parisian Ham & Cheese, made with Parisian Croque Madame, baked ham, baby Swiss, a fried egg, and Béchamel sauce.

The Porchetta Sandwich, with slow-roasted Tuscan pork, seasonal greens, and red onion marmalade, uses baguettes made by someone Day couldn’t name, because the baker only wants to do business on a small scale.

“It’s basically just a baguette, but it’s got this sweet, almost donut-like dough,” Day said.

The meat he uses comes from Cajun Grain Farms in Kinder, La. – a farm that specializes in rice, free-range cattle, and pigs – and he lets Louisiana’s seasons determine the menu.

It’s a popular thought that buying local ingredients takes a heavier toll on the wallet, but Day disagrees.

“Honestly, the farmers’ markets around here have some of the best deals out there,” he said.

Because everything is made from scratch with fresh ingredients, it makes sense why he decided to only operate five days a week, leaving Mondays and Tuesdays for prep. On Sunday, he’s only open for lunch.

“It cuts into the football schedule, but it’s a lot of work to make pasta from scratch,” he said.

One of the best things about Ignatius Reilly’s is that the menu is always changing, but the stress of such a variable menu would most certainly irritate the real Ignatius’ “valve.”

Yet it seems appropriate that his preferred way of dealing with change, paradoxically, was by eating street food.

To find out what’s on the menu, and where Ignatius Reilly’s Gourmet Street Food is going to be from day to day, keep up with them on their website: www.IgnatiusReillys.com.