Mary Ellen Daniels

“

"No. Continue talking trash about me. I like it."

”

Hometown/Residence	Belmont, MA
Occupation	Bartender
Statistics
Challenges Won	1
Services Won	2
Times as BoW/Announcer	0
Times Nominated	1
Placement	8th
Episode Eliminated/Withdrew	Day 4
Images of Mary Ellen Daniels

Mary Ellen Daniels was a contestant on Season 1 of Hell's Kitchen. She ranked in 8th place.

Season 1

Episode 1

Main article: Episode 101 - Day 1

The twelve contestants arrived in Hell's Kitchen and celebrated with a champagne glass and getting to know each other. After some time, Maître D' Jean-Philippe and Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann greeted them, revealing that their first test began now.

During the Signature Dish Challenge, Mary Ellen revealed her dish to be an endive salad with toasted almonds due to the crunchiness and said she loved endives. She was the second contestant to have her Signature Dish judged by Ramsay. She served an endive salad with toasted walnuts, but Ramsay was shocked that the salad had nothing cooked and deemed it boring. After the challenge, she was placed on the blue team, along with Wendy, Jessica, Andrew, Ralph, and Michael.

During dinner service, Mary Ellen was at the meat station. During that service, she was very unnoticed, which was incomplete because Ramsay shut down both kitchens after many tables left. The blue team won the service, but Ramsay added that her team did not win and that they were just safe.

Episode 2

Main article: Episode 102 - Day 2

The next day, at 5:55 AM, Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann went in the dorms with cookware and banged them together to wake up everybody, with Dewberry originally thinking it was somebody with a gun. During the Squid Cleaning Challenge, Mary Ellen gave one of the best individual performances of her team and overall with two perfect squids. However, the blue team lost the challenge 5-6, and they were punished by cleaning all the squids for the next dinner service and working with no air conditioning.

The next day, Andrew, Mary Ellen, and Jessica met in the kitchen to discuss Jeff's condition, with the former talking about his moans of pain. During dinner service, she began on the appetizer station. As the blue team worked on their first order, she struggled to get the Caesar salads ready, much to Ramsay's dismay, but she managed to get them accepted. When she finally sent out acceptable Wellingtons and half of the main courses, Andrew tried to make himself look good in front of Sous Chef Scott by claiming he was trying to control the temperature of the oven. However, Sous Chef Scott did not buy that, and she got annoyed by that, sarcastically telling Andrew to keep talking down to her. After Jean-Philippe was physically assaulted, Ramsay shut down both kitchens and declared the blue team winners for serving more entrées than the red team.

Episode 3

Main article: Episode 103 - Day 3

Before the Five Course Meal Challenge, Mary Ellen said goodbye to Michael as the latter was transferred to the red team. She was the final person from the blue team to have her dish judged, made the dessert course, and went up against Jimmy. She made a trio of crème brulée, it was deemed delicious by Ramsay, and she scored that round over Jimmy. However, the blue team lost the challenge after a tiebreaker at three and they were punished by cleaning the dorms.

During dinner service, Mary Ellen was at the fish station. She was unnoticed during this service, as she did not make the most mistakes. Her team lost the service after tables walked out, and Ralph was named "Best of the Worst." During deliberation, she and Andrew tried to comfort Jessica as the latter was upset by her poor performance.

She was not nominated for elimination.

Episode 4

Main article: Episode 104 - Day 4

Following Wendy's elimination, when they got back to the dorms, Mary Ellen comforted Jessica, who was already missing Wendy and crying about it.

During the Perfect Table Challenge, Mary Ellen got annoyed by Andrew continuing to readjust the table. Compared to the red team's four, the blue team managed to make only one mistake and won the challenge. They were rewarded with a day of relaxation and spa treatment in the dorms. During the reward, she felt awesome to get a massage after a tense time.

Later that night, the chefs gathered at the patio for some downtime as Mary Ellen and Jessica called Jean-Philippe a character. Then, Elsie discovered a huge billboard outside the dorms showing Ramsay's face and the show's title. She made everybody else look at it, all laughing when they saw it saying they could not believe it. The next day during prep, Sous Chef Scott was amazed at how well she got her station set up, and she felt very good about the blue team's situation compared to the red team.

During dinner service, Mary Ellen was at the appetizer station. She got her team to a great start with her first orders of appetizers. However, three of her risottos were sent back because they were bland and mushy, and Ramsay refused to send out any more food until she sent out the refires. However, she forgot the tuna for order as she did not hear it earlier. When she revealed it could take two minutes to cook a fresh tuna, a frustrated Ramsay decided to send the entire table to her, making her mad to the point of wanting to punch him. The blue team lost the service as the red team succeeded in serving all their tables before them. Still, while Andrew blamed her for being a disaster, she felt he had big problems no matter the night. Jessica was named "Best of the Worst." Back at the dorms, she was seen talking with Jessica.

Mary Ellen was Jessica's second nominee for elimination, with Andrew being the first. During her plea, she felt she did well on appetizers until she slowed the kitchen down. Ramsay reminded her that they had to stop the kitchen due to the risotto returns, which he deemed disgusting. She was eliminated, much to the dismay of Jessica, due to her inconsistency during four services and for sinking the kitchen for her team. During her exit interview, she believed Ramsay made the wrong decision in sending her home, and that Andrew was the weak link in the blue team before predicting that the latter would be joining her very soon.

Ramsay's comment: "Mary Ellen has left Hell's Kitchen because of her inconsistency. What the rest of the team should understand is that it is very crucial to get better and more consistent. That didn't happen with Mary Ellen."

Nomination History

Week 1	Win
Week 2	Win
Week 3	Safe
Week 4	Nominated

Post Hell's Kitchen

• After her appearance on the show, Mary Ellen married in 2013 and returned to her previous career in hospitality.
• She is now known as Mary Ellen Birenbaum.

Trivia

• Mary Ellen is the first contestant from Massachusetts.
• She was the first contestant to get eliminated as the second nominee for elimination.
• She did not come back for the last dinner service of the season as supposed to, so Dewberry took her place.

Quotes

• "I love endives."
• (To Andrew) "No. Continue talking trash about me. I like it."
• ("After being eliminated") "I think that Chef Ramsay's decision was the wrong decision. I don't believe I was the weak link on the team tonight, I think, as shown in the past, it was Andrew that was the weak link. I think that Andrew will be joining me shortly."

Gallery

• Chef
• Dishes

Mary Ellen's Intro Shot

Mary Ellen in a Blue Jacket

Mary Ellen's Confessional

Andrew and Mary Ellen nominated

Mary Ellen Eliminated

Mary Ellen's Signature Dish

Mary Ellen's Five-Course Meal Dish (Season 3)