Chef parks Bleu Plate food truck in Pontotoc for six months at a time
Aug. 2—PONTOTOC — Amanda Leigh Ivy sets her sights on life goals, and then she goes after them.
She wanted to join the military, so she did, serving in the U.S. Army from 2001-2005. After she got out, she decided she wanted to learn to fly, so she earned her pilot's license.
"Ultimately, I decided I wanted to go to culinary school," Ivy said. "Growing up, I always felt special when I was cooking, so I went to culinary school at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock."
At the end of her culinary training, she had to apprentice in a kitchen and opted to work with a friend who had a food truck.
"I did that for a year, and after that, I decided I needed to go work for some great chefs and learn more," said Ivy, 38. "I worked in fine dining, and helped open six restaurants."
But then she got the food truck itch again.
"I opened my first food truck in Little Rock in 2018, so I've been at this for a while," said Ivy, who now operates her Bleu Plate food truck in Pontotoc.
Ivy was born in Tupelo, but her family moved to Long Beach, California, when she was 6 months old. Her parents, Bill and Sandy Lowry of Pontotoc, moved home to Mississippi when Ivy was 18, but she decided to stay in California for eight more years.
She moved from Long Beach to Little Rock a dozen years ago to join her husband, Kyle, who is in the Air Force and was stationed there.
"While I was in Little Rock, I was on the Food Network twice," she said. "I was on 'Guy's Grocery Games' in Season 14. I didn't win, but it was good experience. Guy Fieri is super nice, super funny. Then I was on 'The Great Food Truck Race' in Season 8 in 2017. Again, I didn't win, but it was still amazing."
While Ivy was working as a chef in Little Rock, Kyle got orders that he was to be stationed in West Virginia.
"I went to West Virginia with him, but I couldn't find a good spot for my food truck," she said. "I came home to Pontotoc for a visit and decided to move here part time. This is where I want to retire anyway."
So for six months of the year — May through October — Ivy lives with her parents in Pontotoc and operates her food truck. The other six months, she lives in West Virginia with Kyle, where she caters and cooks for private parties.
Typically, Ivy operates her Bleu Plate food truck at the Tanglefoot Trail in Pontotoc on Wednesdays from 4 to 8 p.m. and at the Pontotoc Farmers' Market on Saturdays from 7 to 11 a.m.
"Other days of the week we float around," she said. "On Mondays, I post on Facebook where we're going to be for the week."
This week is a bit short, because the food truck needs some work done on it, so the Bleu Plate will only be at the farmers' market Saturday morning and at Pontotoc Nights on Main Street that evening from 5 to 9.
Ivy's menu changes seasonally, but there are a couple of items that are permanent fixtures. One is a fried bread taco, which is a nod to her Mohican heritage. The other is a Scoop Plate, featuring chicken salad, potato salad, pimiento cheese, a charcuterie meat, a baguette and crackers.
"The Scoop Plate is a lot of food for $12," she said. "When I was doing fine dining, it was disappointing to have friends that couldn't afford to eat what I was cooking. So it's nice to have the ability to put my chef's skills out there for an affordable price. It requires a lot of scratch cooking to keep prices down."
Right now, her summer seasonal special is a quarter rack of Thai curry mopped and smoked St. Louis-style ribs served with black rice pilaf, naan, and a succotash made with locally grown vegetables. This will remain on the menu until she heads back to West Virginia in November.
Ivy also offers a Bleu Plate Special each week. Last week, it was a Market Bacon Sandwich, featuring house-cured bacon, mustard greens, pimiento cheese, local tomatoes and corn chow-chow served on ciabatta bread. The week before, she offered shrimp and couscous with corn and a chanterelle cream sauce.
"I have people come up to the truck and read the menu and say, 'Oh, this is fancy food,'" Ivy said. "I had people last week who said they'd never had couscous before. You just have to be patient with people. Pontotoc is growing and changing. If I'd put this food out 20 years ago, people probably wouldn't have touched it."
Ivy said the response to her food truck and style of cooking has been tremendous.
"It was scary when we got the military orders for West Virginia," she said. "I'd had all that success in Arkansas and didn't know if it would transcend to the next place. It's nice to have regulars. It feels really good here."
