More Crocs on Top Chef! But Still Way Behind Tattoos for Most Common Cheftestant Accessory

Months ago I lamented the departure of Top Chef Cheftestant and Hati survivor Ron Duprat, he of the red Crocs.  We were going to miss his jolly laugh, his trouble understanding the meaning of words like “vice” and “deconstructed,” and his revolting cocktails.  But most of all we were going to miss his plastic footwear, the fire truck red slip-ons that made him stand out from the rest.

It was then, with great pleasure, that I realized it appears that perennial challenge finalist and lover of all things pork Kevin Gillespie has been sporting his own pair of Crocs this whole time, albeit a much a less fashionable black set.  Looking back, it was very hard to pick this up, as they just as easily could have been confused for a pair of black boots.  But if you know what you’re looking for then you can (sorta) make out the Crocs, like in this picture from the Penn & Teller episode.

(This, of course, was right before Kevin won the challenge and received his set of Calphalon pots and pans, making him the envy of not just his fellow cheftestants but of housewives nationwide)

In this week’s episode I spotted the Crocs when the cheftestants arrived at the Venetian.  I searched for quite sometime to find a photo on the Bravo website of this moment, but, alas, there were no Croc-centric photos to be found.  I also tried viewing the episode on Hulu, but for some reason the only full episodes available are old Thanksgiving themed entries, including last year’s Foo Fighters microwave & toaster challenge.  So I had to take matters into my own hands and capture still photos from the TV.  Not ideal, but you should still be able to make out the evidence:

And close-up:

And in case you didn’t spot them there:

And there you have it!  The spirit of Ron Duprat lives on in a pasty, lumberjack bearded, genteel chef from Atlanta.

Will it be too long before Top Chef releases its own line of Crocs?  We sure hope so.

Oh and Jen had fun at the Excalibur.  Not sure what shoes she was wearing.  Hopefully not heels, as she probably stumbled back to the kitchen.

The Red Knight’s going down!

And a much more entertaining recap of last week’s episode courtesy of Videogum.