The first chili cookoff was held in Terlingua, Texas in 1967. Since then, it's been held continuously, with a lot of interesting developments. The early days involved luminaries such as Carol Shelby, H. Allen Smith, and Wick Fowler. This history is recounted in the interesting book. A Bowl of Red The book doesn't tell you that chili lovers, (called "Chili-heads") divided into two different camps. It also does NOT contain recipes.

At the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, I competed (six times) in cook-offs sponsored by ICS -- the International Chili Society. The cookoff I just entered in Tombstone was sponsored b CASI -- The Chili Appreciation Society, International. which has over 500 cook-offs a year. ICS has 200. Each of them talks as tho they were the only group of Chili-heads in the world. The CASI entry in Wiki mentions ICS briefly but ICS doesn't have a wiki entry! The discussion on that page is virtually non-existent. .

As well as I can tell, some of the contestants thought the championship ought to be moved around. Terlingua was originally a ghost town. It has grown considerably since 1967, but is still a pretty dreary place for an international event of this importance. <snark> So, ICS was formed about ??.

The differences in recipes are interesting (more later)

Some Cookbooks:

Chili Nation This cookbook has a chili recipe from each state. Interesting, because of the similarities and differences between regions. Some interesting techniques for preparation at the beginning of the book.

Chili-Lover's Cook Book: Chili Recipes and Recipes With Chiles (Cookbooks and Restaurant Guides) This book has many recipes from all over, and it has a lot of recipes that use peppers. The recipes are a little more varied than the previous book. And it's cheaper!

My Chili experiences and Recipes are recounted here.

Chili -- Cooking and Competing

Some Cookbooks:

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