Eiji Kanda is a young man of about twenty-one years old who serves as an apprentice pastry chef at the Antique bakery. Before finding his place in the world of confectionery, he was a professional boxer of significant renown, having held the world championship title in the featherweight or junior lightweight division. His fighting career, however, was cut short by a medical diagnosis of retinal detachment, which forced him into an early and unwelcome retirement. This sudden loss of his identity and passion left him despondent and adrift.

His path to the bakery began during a jog when he noticed a help wanted sign in the window of the Antique shop. Intrigued and possessing a deep-seated love for sweets, he entered and tasted a cake made by the pastry chef, Yusuke Ono. The experience was so profound that he immediately declared the chef a god and pleaded to be taken on as an apprentice, a wish that was eventually granted. Kanda brings an energetic and often impulsive energy to the shop. His personality is characterized as cheerful, straightforward, and boisterous, often clashing vocally with the shop's owner, Keiichiro Tachibana, whom he affectionately teases with names like old man. This behavior masks a more complex individual; having grown up in an orphanage, he craves attention and connection, and his philosophy is to repay any kindness shown to him a thousandfold.

His primary motivation within the story is to master the art of French patisserie under his mentor, Ono. Kanda demonstrates a prodigious natural talent for baking, much to the surprise of even the skilled Ono, who resolves to train him as a successor. This relationship with Ono is the most significant in his life, evolving beyond a typical master-apprentice dynamic into a deeply caring bond that is almost familial, with Kanda showing fierce loyalty and a childlike fear of being abandoned by his teacher. Beyond his rivalry-tinged friendship with Tachibana, he also shares the workspace with the quiet and imposing former servant, Chikage Kobayakawa, with whom he gets along well. A notable aspect of his development is his struggle with formal education, particularly learning French, which is necessary for his ambition to study pastry in France, a task he finds exceedingly challenging compared to his physical pursuits.

Kanda's notable abilities are twofold. In the ring, he was an exceptionally gifted fighter with a history that includes being a former street delinquent before his boxing coach took him in. In the kitchen, his abilities are equally impressive; he possesses an exceptional palate and a rapid learning curve, allowing him to create popular and approved cakes within a remarkably short time, proving that his genius is not limited to athletics but extends to the art of pastry.