The Truth About Mary Lou Davis From Hell's Kitchen Season 19

Hell's Kitchen contestant Mary Lou Davis "couldn't be happier" about season 19's results, at least that's what she told North Texan. "I had a blast ... I lost like 10 pounds on Hell's Kitchen," she gushes on a recent Instagram video, "I was just stressed." 

The University of North Texas and Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio, Texas graduate is a self-described "loud ball of energy" who "laugh(s) at her own jokes." She never thought she'd want to compete on Gordon Ramsay's popular reality TV show. "He's going to yell at me, and I'm either going to cry or yell back," she'd tell people. But the show's producers caught wind of her Instagram, and that was that. 

If you're a San Antonio person, you might recognize Davis as the Chef Partner at Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar, where, as per her LinkedIn profile, she's been cooking up farm-to-table dishes since 2017, when she started as a sous chef. In 2019, by which time she had become a chef de cuisine, Davis was working the brunch shift when she had "oil pop in my eye." After the incident, she wrote, "I refused to get off the line or even ask for help. I took my bandana from my head and covered my eye and pushed through service. I crushed sauté solo, and have new level of respect from my guys. And nothing was sent back." That's just the way she rolls. 

"In college, I had three jobs and was a full-time student," Mary Lou Davis tells her Instagram followers. One of them was as a dishwasher at a horse racing track. "I used to fall asleep in the booth in the restaurant after closing. I didn't get to hang out with friends and go bar hopping and clubbing. I worked, I had a goal in mind," she writes. Before she turned to cooking, she thought she'd study journalism. When her frustration with her major brought her to tears, she changed tracks, according to North Texan.

Why food? "I didn't always want to be a chef," Davis has reflected, "I wanted to be a vampire or an assassin. Seriously. Something powerful and strong. Growing up I don't think I was really good at anything. But yo girl liked to eat. I fell in love with cooking." Good thing she did. Mary Lou Davis has clearly found her passion. Gordon Ramsay probably thinks so, too. Want proof? The celebrity chef never yelled at her once on Hell's Kitchen, although Davis admitted to North Texan, "He hit me with the disappointed dad look, 'Really, Mary Lou?'"

Part of the reason that Hell's Kitchens' producers fell for her Instagram was Mary Lou Davis' creativity. The Hell's Kitchen contestant has a penchant for mixing her love of fantasy with food. Case in point? Davis admits to having "a small obsession with Harry Potter." Or, as she writes: "I sleep with my wand under my bed because, if you stay ready you don't ever have to get ready." She also has a thing for valkyries and isn't ashamed to dabble in cyberpunk cosplay.

You may know that about the young chef, already, if you're following her YouTube channel, Geeks & Grubs, where Davis makes food inspired by her favorite fantasy worlds. Among our favorite episodes, is the beignets she cooks up for Princess & The Frog. Davis' favorite Disney princess is "Tiana," she admits in the video because Tiana is the "only princess that has a full-time job and seasons her food." We're also nerding out over Davis' Black Panther-themed episode. "Black Panther touched mine as well as the hearts of millions of people," she writes in the episode description, "this my interpretation of traditional African Dishes; and I wanted to show my appreciation to the late, great Chadwick Boseman and the legacy that he left behind."