New Northampton ice cream parlour goes down a treat with stars at British Grand Prix

Having decided to start The Ice Cream Parlour in Billing Garden Village – which opens on July 13 – Samantha Nichols fired off a hopeful email to Silverstone to see if she could secure a place for her cart somewhere at the race.

“I couldn’t have asked for it to go better,” she said.

“We were in the paddock serving the drivers.”

Stationed by the entrance to the area behind the Silverstone Wing, Samantha was up at 2am every day of the Grand Prix serving gelatos to customers over the course of a scorching hot weekend.

And on Sunday things got even better as she was asked to treat guests of the F1 Live show to ice creams.

A veritable who’s who of British GP tucked in - the likes of Niki Lauda, Nico Rosberg, Michael Carrick, Sir Jackie Stewart, Christian Horner, actor Liam Cunningham, Jean Todt and wife Michelle Yeoh, and more.

“All of them loved it. Lemon cheesecake and strawberry cheesecake were the most popular,” said 43-year-old Samantha, who lives in Billing Aquadrome.

“Kevin Magnussen had three helpings and asked me to go to Italy to teach them how to make ice cream!”

The Ice Cream Parlour stocks 40 flavours in the shop some of which cater for diabetics, vegans and gluten.

They range from an award-winning Ferrero Rocher, salted caramel, black forest cherry brandy, mint Aero, peanut butter chocolate, coffee and walnut, unicorn and blood orange.

A family friend of Samantha’s makes the gelato to order and according to her the key to its taste is the fact it’s not mass produced, meaning there’s less air in the mixture and more flavour.

The 43-year-old was inspired to start the business after trips to Europe.

“When you go abroad you get all the different flavours,” said Samantha.

“Basically I want to show Northampton that there is different ice cream that you can get that tastes great and is affordable.”