later, he began writing about food, and was a regular contributor to gourmet, bon appetit, and food & wine magazines. he also wrote or co-wrote more than 20 cookbooks during his career, including "the manhattan chili company southwest american cookbook", "the new american cookbook", "the back of the box gourmet" #1 and #2, "the el paso chili company's texas border cookbook", "fifty-two meat loaves", "cooking for the weekend", "the mushroom book", "the little book of big sandwiches" and "the jimtown store cookbook".