By Georgeann "Peppers" Peters

              In the fall of 1984 in a backyard on the east end of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, five Texans competed in a chili competition and founded what was to become the Texas Society of the Virgin Islands Annual Chili Cook-off.

            The following two years, it was held on an east end beach at For The Bird’s, a restaurant owned and operated by a Texan.The event was becoming more popular than the beach there could handle, drawing more than 200 people. In 1987, the event moved to Magen’s Bay beach but due to the overwhelming public response of 500 spectators/chili lovers, the organizers were told not to come back…ever. The University of the Virgin Islands west end beach, John Brewer aka Brewer’s Beach, became the location of the Texas Society of the Virgin Islands Annual Chili Cook-Off in 1988 and remained there until 1995. 

            Every August, Chiliheads with awesome showmanship teams came by boats from Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands to compete.  At the Chili Appreciation Society International, Inc., (CASI)’s 1994 Great Peppers meeting, the Virgin Pod (aka the Texas Society of the Virgin Islands) was seeded.  Sapphire Beach Resort and Marina offered use of the resort for the 1995 event, which was the weekend of September 15^th.  A tropical storm warning was put in effect on Friday evening and the event was postponed. Hurricane Marilyn hit the island with winds over 200 miles per hour and removed 90% of the roofs of buildings. Many of the cooks used the plywood from their booths to board up their homes, and after the storm passed, used their chili pots to boil water, feed their homeless neighbors, bring water up from the cistern and do laundry.  There was no electricity for months. The postponed chili cook-off was held in November and, for whatever reason, made the most money in its history, $30,000.00 in one afternoon.  For the next nine years the Virgin Pod’s annual chili cook-off has been held in September and a new slogan was born, “Come Cook If You Dare”! 

            In 2003, the cook-off moved to Bolongo Beach Resort and a tropical storm formed on top of the island sending a deluge of rain that did not dampen the spirits of the cooks or the crowd which has grown to more than 3,000 spectators/chili tasters over twenty two years.