Ron Ben-Israel

Chef 

Known as the Food Networks' "Sweet Genius," Ron Ben Israel creates chic and elaborate cakes referred to as "the Manolo Blahnik of wedding cakes" by The New York Times, all from his Soho studio in New York City.

As a young boy, Ron grew up enamored by the art of cake-making utterly captivated by his mother's culinary skills. As a former dancer, Ron integrates the discipline and meticulous aspects of dance into his products. After serving as an apprentice in France, Ron took his culinary expertise to New York where his cakes were discovered by Martha Stewart while on display in the windows of Mikimoto on Fifth Avenue.

Sharing the love for his vocation, Ron occasionally acts as a Visiting Master Pastry Instructor at the renowned French Culinary Institute. Although known for his elegant wedding cakes, Ron's creations can also take unconventional transformation like a "Wizard of Oz" castle or a Chanel purse. With fine attention to detail and profound love put into every piece, a Ron Ben-Israel cake is not just for eating, but, as he describes it, "a performance."

When he isn't baking cakes, Ron sits on the Chef's Council of City Harvest, an organization dedicated to collecting more than 28 million pounds of excess food from restaurants and distributing it to various community agencies that feed over a quarter-million hungry New Yorkers. He even requests the clients who order too much cake to have the leftovers donated to City Harvest. Ron is also a member of Lambda Legal, which fights for LGBT rights, and offers an intensive internship program for aspiring pastry chefs.

Ron's confectionary creations have been featured in countless publications, many times adorning their covers. Some publications include: The New York Times, New York Magazine, Town and Country, People, NY Post, NY Daily News, Martha Stewart Living, In Style, Modern Bride, Bridal Guide, Elegant Bride, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, The Knot, TimeOut and Vogue to name a few. In 2004 Vogue named Ron the number one best baker and Martha Stewart's favorite baker.

Many books have highlighted his cakes including Vera Wang on Weddings, Kate Manchester's The Perfect Wedding Cake, Bette Matthews' For Your Wedding - Cakes, and Joan Hamburg's City Weddings. Zagat Survey's have published glowing reviews on Ron's confections for the past six consecutive years. His personae and operation have been thinly disguised as a feature character in the New York Times' bestselling novel Shopaholic Ties The Knot by Sophie Kinsella.