Ron Ben-Israel ( he, רון בן-ישראל; born 1957) is an Israeli-American

pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier (; the French female version of the word is pâtissière ), is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, b ...

. He is the executive chef and owner of Ron Ben-Israel Cakes in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He is known for his wedding and special occasion cakes as well as for his detail in sugar paste flowers. From 2011 to 2013, he hosted the cooking competition TV show

Sweet Genius ''Sweet Genius'' was an American reality-based cooking television series on the Food Network. The series was hosted by pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel Ron Ben-Israel ( he, רון בן-ישראל; born 1957) is an Israeli-American pastry chef. He i ...

. Ben-Israel has also been a judge on a variety of

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

shows, including

Cake Wars ''Cake Wars'' is an American reality competition series that was first broadcast on June 29, 2015, aired on Food Network. Jonathan Bennett hosted the competition, where four bakers face off to have their cakes featured in a special event, in ...

, Chopped,

Guy's Grocery Games '' Guy's Grocery Games '' (often nicknamed ''Triple G'') is an American reality-based cooking television game show hosted by Guy Fieri on Food Network. Each episode features four chefs competing in a three-round elimination contest, cooking food ...

and

Worst Cooks in America ''Worst Cooks in America'' is an American reality television series that premiered on January3, 2010, on Food Network. The show takes 12 to 16 contestants (referred to as "recruits") with very poor cooking skills through a culinary boot camp, to ...

Biography

Ron Ben-Israel was born in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. His mother was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and was rescued from the ghetto by American volunteers, later immigrating to Israel. His father, Moshe, lost most of his family in

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, and survived Auschwitz. His father worked in the printing industry, while his mother worked in map-making for the government. Ben-Israel grew up in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

. He loved baking in the kitchen as a child. He attended the

Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts Givatayim ( he, גִּבְעָתַיִים, lit. "two hills") is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. In it had a population ...

, specializing in dance. Ben-Israel is gay.

Dancing career

Ben-Israel started a dance career at age 21, right after discharging from the army. He specialized in

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

. He danced with the Israeli dance companies

Batsheva The Batsheva Dance Company (Hebrew: להקת בת שבע) is a renowned dance company based in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was founded by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild in 1964. Its inception was inspired by Israel's growing intere ...

and Bat-Dor over a period of some 15 years, and toured internationally. Near the end of his dancing career, he moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Baking career

In 1993, while living in

, Ben-Israel retired from dancing, in part due to having developed

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In some ...

. He started a new career in cooking, doing temporary jobs making cakes and designing shop windows. In 1996, he fell in love with baking. He was discovered and mentored by Betty Van Nostrand and

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pub ...

who saw one of his cakes in a window. Ben-Israel's confectionery pieces have been featured at the openings of the

Mandarin Oriental Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group International Limited (MOHG) is a Hong Kong hotel investment and management group focusing on luxury hotels, resorts, and residences, with a total of 33 properties worldwide, 20 of which are fully or partially ow ...

, New York and The

Ritz-Carlton The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC is an American multinational company that operates the luxury hotel chain known as The Ritz-Carlton. The company has 108 luxury hotels and resorts in 30 countries and territories with 29,158 rooms, in add ...

and are part of events at other New York hotels including the St. Regis, the

Pierre Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, and the New York Palace. ''Modern Bride'', '' Town & Country'', ''

Martha Stewart Weddings ''Martha Stewart Weddings'' is an online weddings magazine published by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. ''Martha Stewart Weddings'' was launched as an annual publication in 1994, and was expanded to quarterly in 1999. It was the second magazine ...

'', ''

InStyle ''InStyle'' was an American monthly women's fashion magazine founded in 1994. It was published in the United States by Dotdash Meredith. In February 2022, it was announced that InStyle would cease print publications and move to a digital-only f ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' have commissioned his cake designs. His television appearances include ''

'', the Bravo Network, ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

,'' the

, and the ''

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production c ...

''. From 2011 to 2013, Ben-Israel was the host and judge of the

competition show ''

''. Ben-Israel is a Visiting Master Pastry-Instructor at The

International Culinary Center The International Culinary Center was a private for-profit culinary school headquartered in New York City. In 2020, it merged into the Institute of Culinary Education, also in New York City. It was founded as The French Culinary Institute by ...

. He teaches the Classic Pastry Arts class and the Cake Techniques & Design class his approach to sugar paste. Ben-Israel appeared as a guest judge on Season 2 of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

Baking-parody show ''

Nailed It! ''Nailed It!'' is an American reality television series that premiered on March 9, 2018 on Netflix. The series is a bake-off competition in the style of reality television, where three amateur bakers compete to replicate complicated cakes and co ...

''. He has also appeared as a guest judge on Season 3 of Netflix's '' Sugar Rush'' and on Food Network's

The Big Bake ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speak ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Israel, Ron Pastry chefs Food Network chefs Living people Israeli male chefs Israeli television chefs American male chefs American television chefs Chefs from New York City Israeli LGBT dancers 21st-century Israeli Jews Gay Jews Israeli gay men Israeli emigrants to the United States Israeli people of Austrian-Jewish descent Israeli soldiers Israeli male dancers Modern dancers Gay dancers 1957 births Jewish American chefs 21st-century American Jews LGBT chefs