“Top Chef” 2025, episode 11: “Why I do things I don’t know how to do!”

There are only four of them left and they thought they were in the quarter-finals... But the arrival of Grégoire and Ilane is a bit of a blow to Charles , Charlie, Quentin and Margaux, still in the running in this 16th season of " Top Chef ". Grégoire first, who arrives as a conqueror in Éric Fréchon's green brigade. "I'm coming back stronger than ever," he says. "You'll understand your pain," Etchebest retorts. You have to show your muscles in the salons of the George V.

Ilane then enters, with Fabien Ferré, a three-Michelin-star chef, at the head of the pink brigade. "Like, who's he?" Quentin whispers. Margaux's surprise is also evident. "Are you okay?" Stéphane Rotenberg asks her. "No," she admits. Faced with these two starving ghosts, she feels in danger.

The candidates will be cooking in palace style. All of them, except Charlie. With his two Michelin inspectors' favorites, he's immune until the quarterfinals. "It's still cool, a bit like vacation," he says. We'll see him in his bathrobe, relaxed, in the corridors...

Honoring veterans, the production team has planned a first challenge between Charles, Quentin, and Margaux. One of them can qualify directly. They have 45 minutes to revisit the egg mouillette. Charles has a good feeling about it, so he reverses the dish, inserting a mushroom duxelles, an egg-Comté-wine siphon, and a candied egg yolk into a small round bread roll. Quentin has a crazier idea: put the siphon bread and croutons in the shell, and the egg in a mouillette.

To do this, he has to coat it in butter and fry it… “You’re bold, but don’t fail!” sighs Glenn Viel, a little alarmed by the risks involved. “I’ll never stop taking risks, it’s in my DNA,” Quentin ventures. Margaux opts for a Japanese flan. “A breakfast egg is not a flan!” warns Le Quellec. She adds a candied egg.

At the tasting, Alan Taudon, two-star chef at L'Orangerie, one of the palace's restaurants, and Guillaume Cabrol, the hotel's head baker, preferred Quentin's proposal. They placed Charles second, with Margaux bringing up the rear. The latter two had to compete with the newcomers and create three bites to pair with green tea.

"Having two rogues arrive like bulldozers gives me the creeps," admits Margaux. Fear is also on the other side. "They've taken out everyone I've beaten in recent weeks... It's tough..." worries Ilane, who has just discovered the pantry and doesn't know what to do.

Charles is on the ball; it'll be oysters and cucumber cream, citron ravioli stuffed with rice pudding, and cabbage stuffed with French toast. Grégoire is already on board too. "I'm going to smoke everything, guys!" He dares to try beef tartare with oysters, a citrus French toast, and a smoked eel crumble and chocolate ganache.

Margaux travels back to Japan with a kind of shrimp sandwich, and tries a butternut mochi. Without the ingredients for the dough, she struggles and improvises. Ilane panics. "You have the mentality of a warrior!" Fabien Ferré motivates him. "No one's going to knock me out today," Ilane rages, joining the fray.

When it came time to send it, Margaux looked grim. She could. "The visual is a bit raw," notes Francesco Cosci, the palace's sommelier. At the tasting, Grégoire made the difference and won hands down with his chocolate, tartare, and iodine. "It's technique serving originality. We were in another dimension," says the sommelier.

Second again, Charles is taking a hit. But the final stretch is already approaching, with the dried pasta to be made gourmet. "Courage, my little Charlot!" encourages Margaux. It's between her, Ilane, and Charles. "You don't give up, damn it!" Etchebest spurs on his protégé, who imagines a timbale of macaroni with langoustines and chanterelles. The problem is, it doesn't add up. "It's shit," he fumes. "Why am I doing things I don't know how to do!" He's stuck.

Ilane, meanwhile, is preparing the bottarga pasta he used to eat with his father. It's beautiful, laser-like. A little too much garlic. "We're giving it our all, we're bringing out Ilane and pasta!" laughs Margaux, fired up. She's going to make "Margaux," as Stéphanie Le Quellec told her: paccheri with a langoustine chorizo ​​bisque and parsley, lemon, and ginger breadcrumbs.

It worked out for her; she won the competition, which was tasted by Hélène Darroze, Christian Le Squer, Simone Zanoni, and Alan Taudon. Charles managed to get a plate out. But his pasta was a little overcooked. Ilane, the season's wild card, went through. Charles was eliminated. Etchebest was stunned. "It sucks, I'm very disappointed," he sighed, deeply moved.

"It was the worst test of all of Top Chef ," Charles says, distraught by his chef's dismay, tears in his eyes. "Damn, I'm sad," the latter breathes. "It's such a paradox, I'm the one crying and he's the one laughing, even though it's his competition," the Meilleur Ouvrier de France finally remarks, who also leaves the competition. "I'm proud of you and your career, maybe I haven't told you that enough," he whispers to Charles. "Thank you, chef."