ISLAND LIFE MAGAZINE
Ian Whitehead
1963 - 2015
A passion for food and life
W
ell-known Island restaurateur
Ian Whitehead started his
career in hospitality at the
tender age of 15, working in a hotel
kitchen in his native Scotland - but it
wasn’t long before he discovered that his
real passion lay front of house.
Mr Whitehead honed his skills during
the three years he spent working in
hotels and restaurants in Guernsey.
It was in 1990 that he moved to the
Island, to take on the Crown Hotel in
Ryde as a temporary manager for the
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receivership department of Christie and
Co. – a company for which he had been
headhunted. Not only did he turn around
the failing hotel, but when it came onto
the market, he promptly took it on as
owner-manager.
As the restaurant market and consumer
tastes changed, Mr Whitehead bought
Joe Daflo’s in Ryde in 2001, from Level
42’s Mark King.
It was there that he developed his
well-known passion for food, and
subsequently, he opened two more
branches of the popular restaurant-bar,
in Newport and Southampton.
He sold Joe Daflo’s in 2005 and went on
to own Fultons Seafood and Chop House
in Bembridge, and then Smithfield’s Bar
and Grill in Ryde.
Sadly, Mr Whitehead had been looking to
start another venture when he became ill.
He died at the Earl Mountbatten
Hospice, aged 51, and is survived by his
wife Karen and son Connor. A celebration
of his life was followed by a woodland
burial at Springwood in Newchurch.