Cooking Contests: Overview: Chili Wars

American chili cooking competition is as heated and volatile as the debate surrounding the origin of chili and what constitutes a proper “bowl of red.” Such debates sparked the first chili cook-off, which was held in 1967 in the abandoned mining town of Terlingua, Texas. Over the years, the original organization that sponsored Terlingua split into three separate camps, resulting in the three major chili championships.

The Terlingua International Chili Championship is staged annually during the first weekend in November at Rancho CASI de los Chisos. It is sponsored by the Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI), an organization formed after the first Terlingua cook-off in 1967. CASI lost the right to use the title “World’s Championship Chili Cookoff” in 1974 when Carroll Shelby, one of the original organizers, trademarked the term; soon thereafter CASI adopted the title “International Chili Championship.”