David Eyre was born in 1961, on a sugar estate on the banks of the lower Zambezi River in Mozambique and lived there until 1976, before moving to Malawi. Educated at boarding schools in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) and then in Eswatini (then Swaziland). He studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Newcastle on Tyne from 1980 to1984, but then decided he would prefer to work in restaurants in London, rather than a tractor factory in Coventry as he had spent most of his time as a student learning to cook - his mother was a very fine cook and host in the middle of Africa, so something must have been in his blood. He worked as a waiter and barman at Smith's restaurant (employed by his future partner, Mike Belben), and then at Rules restaurant, both in Covent Garden, before moving to Mélange restaurant, also in Covent Garden, where he found himself cooking professionally for the first time. Early in1991 he and Mike opened The Eagle P.H. in Farringdon. It proved to be a success from the first week. Mediterranean cooking was what he offered, and his love of Portuguese food from a childhood in Mozambique featured heavily. In 1998 he and his brother Rob opened Eyre Bros. in Shoreditch - a sandwich bar and kitchen. In 2001 they created the well-received Iberian restaurant Eyre Brothers nearby.. After 17 years at Eyre Brothers, he and his wife Philippa moved to live permanently in rural Southern Portugal where he can indulge in Portuguese food every day.