A Sweet Interview with the Sweet Genius: Ron Ben-Israel
Hey guys!
As promised, I’m back with more interviews from my time at PB Live! Super quickly, in case you missed any of the content from that, you can check out all of the previous posts here:
An EXCLUSIVE Q&A with the Wedding Pros from Preston Bailey’s PB Live
An Exclusive Interview with Lauren Grech of LLG Events
Recap Time: My PB Live Experience
Anyway, while at PB Live, I had the chance to interview cake king, Ron Ben-Israel. You may recognize him from the show Sweet Genius or from various other programs on the Food Network, or if you’re into weddings, you may have seen some of his amazing cakes in magazines. I had the chance to meet Ron and tour his studio a few years ago, and I was blown away. His precision, eye for detail, and overall creativity is unbelievable. Oh, and did I mention his cakes actually taste good? They don’t just look amazing! Beyond that, Ron is so kind, warm, and has a great sense of humor (his PB Live segment was awesome). Without further ado, let’s get into the interview.
You say your focus is on original designs. What are you inspired by?
What am I not inspired by? One of the first things is the flowers, and of course Preston Bailey has been a great inspiration all of these years. We look at the floral proposal. We talk to the celebrants about their favorite colors and flowers. What happens in the room has a great direct relationship to the cake. Then of course the outfits. We talk to the bride about her wedding dress and more and more we incorporate the groom as well. First of all, looking at the dress helps me to know the bride, what type of person she is. Sometimes we borrow architectural elements from the dress—folds, sometimes bows, many times lace, pearls, bling, everything can end up on the cake. Or sometimes we purposefully go against it. So you could have a navy blue cake matching the groom’s tuxedo, as opposed to the white traditional cake. Then stationary has grown so much in the past few years. Logos and monograms are wonderful. When I work with wonderful designers, they give me a whole suite of elements to get inspired by—sometimes art deco, sometimes hand painting, and the water coloring has taken a great place in our cakes. The menu—talking to the chef you find out what the family chose and then we can customize the flavors of the cakes. The actual location—the ballroom or the barn, the tent, or the backyard, all of these will come into play with the cake. And I’m sure there’s much more, but let’s narrow it down to the personality and taste of the celebrants.
Do you get many requests for groom’s cakes?
Yes! Well, I love it. I’ve always been fascinated with the American South, and I go often to Savannah, Georgia. I like the tradition. Why not incorporate the groom? And since we all strive for a big bridal cake, let’s have a groom’s cake. Sometimes because so much work goes into it, and we don’t want to waste it, we would serve it at the brunch the day after or at the rehearsal dinner the night before. But it should be a statement, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, of the groom’s personality and hobbies. And it can be a totally different flavor.
That’s fun! I’ve never thought of that before to have it after the wedding day. That’s a good idea!
Yeah! it’s a chance for us to get creative and play tongue-in-cheek.
Team chocolate or team vanilla if you had to pick?
Why not have it all! Because our standard tiers are each composed of eight layers of cakes and fillings, we could have chocolate and vanilla and different flavors and different tiers and enjoy it all!
Team buttercream or team fondant?
Both. So this is going to be a very long answer. We use only Swiss meringue buttercream, which is the lightest form of buttercream composed of whipped and cooked egg whites to a meringue and French butter folded in. That encases the cake. But buttercreams tend to be very shiny at room temperature, so we add a very thin gossamer layer of fondant and because we refrigerate our cakes, the fondant remains soft and not brittle. It has to be thin. And remember that the French verb fondre means to melt, so the fondant should melt in your mouth.
And one more question. What are the qualities of a good cake decorator?
I do not like personally to separate the terms baker, cake designer, cake decorator, cake artist, or culinary slave, which is what we are, confectionery slaves! I feel we all work in a team to accomplish, so our cake designers actually work and train in the kitchen as well, even though that’s not their specialty, to get the integrity throughout all of our employees. And actually, everyone has to be certified through the Department of Health, so we are a culinary establishment, we are not just designers. But a good cake designer not only has the ability to do repetitive tasks and hone to perfection their techniques, but they also have a wide interest in art, architecture, fabric design. Their eye is just curious to learn more and more.
Thanks so much Ron for your time! Make sure to check out his Instagram for more cake inspiration. Next up in my PB Live interview series is Bryan Rafanelli of Rafanelli Events. Stay tuned!
*This interview was lightly edited for clarity.
*Hero image is courtesy of André Maier Photography
