Boston Ice Cream Events' Blog

While the idea of Margaret Thatcher as the inventor of soft serve is certainly fun, the truth is somewhat less direct. Shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1947 with a degree in chemistry, Thatcher worked briefly at J. Lyons & Company, a food conglomerate where she helped devise a method for whipping extra air into ice cream — a precursor to modern day soft serve. Mr. Whippy, a British chain of ice cream trucks, paved the way for the product to take hold in the U.K. and worldwide. While Thatcher may have contributed in some small part to the product, it’s generally agreed upon that soft serve was invented in the United States, and that it preceded Thatcher’s work at Lyons by about a decade.