The Olympic rower talks about her family’s ice-cream business, eating two breakfasts and barbecuing fish on Cornish beaches
My dad has an ice-cream shop in Newlyn, Cornwall, called Jelbert’s. It’s been in our family for about 100 years. I remember when my dad would go to work and we were getting ready for school, we had this ritual of running to the window of our house and shouting: “Bring us back some ice-cream!” Later on, I worked in the shop for a bit, but I mainly ate the ice-cream.
Jelbert’s only sells one flavour: vanilla, in a cup or cone, and you can add a Flake and clotted cream.The recipe hasn’t changed in years. My dad doesn’t like to change anything – I think Cornish folk don’t – and he’s very low-key, very understated. When I won the Olympics in London, everyone was going past the shop beeping their horns. And he just got a Weetabix box, ripped it up and wrote on the back, “It’s gold!” and he stuck it in the window. That’s a perfect representation of my dad.
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