Ron Ben-Israel (Hebrew: רון בן-ישראל; born 1957) is an Israeli-American pastry chef.
Ben-Israel has also been a judge on a variety of Food Network shows, including Cake Wars, Chopped, Guy's Grocery Games and Worst Cooks in America.
[1] In 1993, while living in New York City, Ben-Israel retired from dancing, in part due to having developed arthritis.
[2] He started a new career in cooking, doing temporary jobs making cakes and designing shop windows.
[4] He was disappointed by the American approach to baking (vegetable shortening, powder sugar, plastic columns, plastic figurines) and set to create more elegant and delicate cakes, digging into his Israeli background where the pastry culture was more international.
He has also appeared as a guest judge on Season 3 of Netflix's Sugar Rush[8] and on Food Network's The Big Bake.