Quotes from Ron Ben-Israel

I have this problem - I don't have hobbies. Everything that's interesting becomes a vocation.

I went to art school first and thought that I'm going to design theater sets. That was my path.

Pastry chefs are very particular people - we like a controlled environment; we don't like an audience.

I always loved cake. I loved the chemistry of it.

I have a crusade against fondant, also shortening. There's no reason why wedding cakes can't taste good if you know what you're doing.

On 'Sweet Genius,' you have to be tough with the chefs, but my goal was to guide them and choose the genius who will win $10,000 - not a bad sum at all for one day's work.

When I celebrated my bar mitzvah, there was no cake. Today, there is no such thing as a bar mitzvah in the United States without a special cake. It can be even more complicated and expensive than a wedding cake, because bar-mitzvah cakes are often based on a particular theme.

I don't follow trends. I make each cake for a particular wedding, or event.

Really, a wedding is the first and biggest party people throw in their lifetime, so there's a lot of challenges and a lot of pressure.

The process of making a wedding cake is complex on its own, from designing, mis-en-place, baking, frosting, structuring, decorating, to delivering.

Sometimes I have a tough time getting along with myself. When I was a child, I needed a lot of attention... and I don't have a small ego. For me, appearing on a stage or presenting a cake is the same thing. You need a crowd around you to do it.

Regrettably, people today don't watch many programs that actually teach people how to cook, so I agreed to do a competitive show that I think will provide inspiration.

We used to be referred to as bakers and then we became known as cake decorators and now we are known as cake designers. I teach at the French Culinary Institute in New York and cake design is a legitimate profession.

The most successful person is the one who is most inspired. That is true in food and in life.

My parents were artists, so my salvation was to make pretty things - and ultimately delicious things at the same time.

Repetitiveness and discipline are the secrets of cake decorating. The art comes from the meticulous technique, the way it does for a dancer.

For months I've been working on creating techniques to reproduce Swarovski crystals in sugar using the real stones to guide me.

I'm very much Israeli and American; I never was tempted to change my name. Some people suggested I should have a different name, and I said absolutely not. That's the name I inherited, and it's meaningful: Israel is on every cake that I present.

I did a cake for the 60th birthday of Elton John, for Britney Spears' 27th birthday and for the 'Circus' album she put out - the cake had circus themes. I prepared a cake for a surprise 82nd birthday event for the architect Frank Gehry the cake was comprised of mini-replicas of his buildings.

The most successful person is the one who is most inspired. That is true in food and in life.

I have a crusade against fondant, also shortening. There's no reason why wedding cakes can't taste good if you know what you're doing.

We used to be referred to as bakers and then we became known as cake decorators and now we are known as cake designers. I teach at the French Culinary Institute in New York and cake design is a legitimate profession.

Your best creative assets do not occur unless you do a mental shift. You have to be in a positive frame of mind because inspiration is fleeting. I walk to work for inspiration and to clear my mind.

In the past few years, we've been doing amazing stuff with desserts. Pastry chefs have been using herbs and spices in their desserts. So vanilla cake doesn't have to be just vanilla, it can have a little thyme. Or you could have a custard with a little lavender in it, which is just amazing.