HADDONFIELD, N.J. (CBS) - “I’m looking for greatness!” says celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, host of the cooking show competition “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Recently, the chef of a new South Jersey restaurant was a finalist on the show.

“I made it to the final six,” says Ed Battaglia, executive chef at Ralic’s Steak House, at 26 South Haddon Avenue in Haddonfield.

If you’ve ever seen the show, you’ll know that Ramsay is tough.  But so is being the executive chef of a restaurant.

“More scary?  Meeting Gordon Ramsay or opening the doors to Ralic’s?  I’m gonna say opening the doors to Ralic’s,” Battaglia admits.  “First time executive chef, ever.  Last thing you want to do is open your doors and everything blows up in your face.”

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Operating partner David Ralic says everything turned out great that first night — and ever since.

“I tell him all the time, ‘Can you make me that?’ and ‘When you make that, make an extra one for me,’ ” Ralic tells KYW Newsradio.

It’s nice to have your own personal chef.

“I know, right?” Ralic says with glee.

And similarly to Battaglia, the restaurant’s pastry chef Toni Marie Walton was on the reality show “Cake Boss.”

“I like to be creative in dessert-making,” she says.  “I like to use bacon, chili, and chocolate combinations, Pop Rocks and chocolate, red velvet with cookies and cream.”

Her favorite creation on “Cake Boss”?

“There was a bachelorette cake that we made, and I did a naked cowboy.”

That’s Positively Philadelphia!

Reported by Lauren Lipton, KYW Newsradio 1060

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