On Sept. 23rd, 2006 at the city park in Jamaica Beach, Texas; Bruce Wilkins (the husband of Cindy Reed Wilkins) broke another record for chili cooks. On that day, he won the ICS Texas State Championship and joined his wife Cindy as the only married couple to hold that title for both Chili organizations. Cindy had won the Texas State championship title back in August of 2006 for the CASI organization.

There are two organized groups that govern and run chili cook-offs around the country. Those two organizations are ICS (International Chili Society, based in California) and CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International, based in Texas). Both are great organizations that raise millions of dollars each year for charities across the country.

Each organization has a Texas State Championship cook-off every year with the winner of the event crowned the best chili cook in Texas. The winner gets to keep this title for one year, and then he or she has to defend it again the following year. This is the first time that a married couple has won both titles for Texas State Champion, for both organizations. Cindy is the current CASI Texas State Champion and Bruce is the current ICS Texas State Champion. Thus, the Mr. and Mrs. Texas State Champions of the chili world.

Cindy has been receiving a lot of recognition lately, ever since she cooked against Bobby Flay, on his series Throwdown With Bobby Flay: The Chili Challenge. Cindy was chosen because of her numerous awards she has won cooking chili. Cindy is the only person in history to have won the CASI International Chili Championship twice and she did it back-to-back in 1992 and 1993. She almost won it again in 2002 but lost to a tie breaker and received second place. Otherwise she would have had three of the 39 Bronze Peppers in existence. Cindy won CASI Texas Ladies State Championship in 2002 and Bruce won the CASI Texas Men's State Championship in 2004. Bruce also won second place two years in a row for the ICS Texas State Championship. This year he got over that hurdle and grabbed the top prize.

Cindy and Bruce meet on the chili trail 10 years earlier, as they where competing against each at various chili cook-offs across the country. Bruce finally convinced Cindy to tie the knot and they got married in 2002. Shortly after, they started to fine tune Cindy's chili recipe and they started selling a dry chili mix to friends and neighbors. They call this mix Cin Chili and it has taken off like the champions that produce it. Cin Chili has won the Golden Pepper Award, the Scovie Award and People's choice awards at all the food shows they have participated in.

They say that the cream of the crop always rises to the top. Cindy and Bruce are doing just that. Keep an eye on this couple; you're going to hear a lot about them in the future.

Cin Chili & Company
Contact: Bruce Wilkins
11702 Braewick
Houston, TX. 77035
713-728-1706
www.cinchili.com