It began a few years ago with chilli plants, salt, a little celebrity chef inspiration from Jamie Oliver and today Rob and his wife, Rachel celebrate another milestone for their business Australian Extreme Chilli Condiments.

There are a few different ways to measure business success – sales, product range growth and awards – and the Krambach business will tick all three for 2016 with a raft of awards from the 2016 Mr Chilli Awards. On top of the total of seven top titles they have already won, they have just added another to the list. In five categories for their range of chilli salts and three titles for sauces, they have added in a berry range, which took about the most recent fruit section. Some of their products have taken a second title for two years running.

The range of products is large but Rob’s current favourite is a new sauce called ‘R.C Burner’ and he is not alone – it took out the top title in the best medium heat worcester sauce in the Mr Chilli Awards.

“It’s a 120-year-old family recipe that we’ve tweaked by adding chocolate habernaroes to it. It’s a worcester-style sauce.

“The recipe comes from a good mate of mine called Rick. The R.C. stands for Rick and Cathy!”

He laughs when asked whether they get a royalty from each bottle sold.

“No, they’ve never had to pay for products – it’s free products for life and there might have been a bottle of scotch somewhere along the way!”

Rob believes the success of their business comes from the fact that "we are all about quality not quantity" and it is the foundation on which they will continue to grow their business. He says the growth of the business is a hot topic of conversation between the couple.

“My wife and I need to make some decisions. Our business is at the stage where we need to look at our jobs and decide if we need to make a change to the hours we do so that we can focus on the business.”

It’s a big shift in thinking from the 'Aha moment' inspired by Jamie Oliver in May 2014. Rob says he was watching Jamie on television when in his passionate, exuberant style of speech he said, "If you've got some left over chilli just bash them up a bit and put them in salt. It'll flavour the salt, I don't know why more people don't do it, it's brilliant!”

Jamie’s words inspired Rob to cultivate a little creativity with the chillis that he loves to grow and ultimately, the creation of Australian Extreme Chilli Condiments.

"The tree came from my dad's place and is a massive five metres by three metres. I took seeds from it and grew the chilli in pots."

Rob and Rachel are colourful and popular characters in their community and keen to introduce people to the variety and complexity of chilli and their growing range of salts and sauces.

On November 12, they will host ‘The Bucketts Chilli Eating Competition’ in conjunction with the ‘Smokin’ It Wild Card One Dish Cook-off’ at The Roundabout Inn, in Gloucester. The chilli eating will have a $5 entry fee which will be donated to Tallulah Nixon to help with her ongoing treatment for Leukemia.

First bite starts at 12:30pm.