‘Dead Celebrity’ chef and author Frank DeCaro says his series’s latest incarnation is about spreading the love for deceased entertainers through their favorite foods — with a holiday twist.  

The Protagonist does not shy away from dark and morbid content, which is why my ears perked when I heard about comedic entertainer Frank DeCaro’s Dead Celebrity Cookbook series.

DeCaro emphasizes, however, the series is more about promoting great performers than capitalizing on their deaths, a shock-value title or even the very recipes themselves.

DeCaro said he’s regularly frustrated at the younger generation’s lack of awareness about some of entertainment’s greatest deceased stars. He sees his project as a “spoonful of sugar” in making sure certain important names are remembered well after their time.

“I wanted to be able to pass along some pop culture history and so that was part of it,” he said, of the series’s origin. “You need to know who these people are — if Lady Gaga can know who Liberace is, so can you.”

“If a show meant a lot to me, I’d slip in a recipe,” he explained. “Even if it only had one deceased star.”

I asked DeCaro if including a recently deceased performer ever struck him as taboo or if his books garnered any negative reactions for their grimness.

“Once they go, I want to get them in the book,” he added, emphasizing it’s never “too soon,” especially since his series is all about paying tribute. The reactions from readers have been overwhelmingly positive as well. “Joey Arias was so happy I included Klaus Nomi,” he said. “Everyone in the book is someone I admire.”

Following the success of the original Dead Celebrity Cookbook, DeCaro is releasing The Dead Celebrity Cookbook Presents Christmas in Tinseltown: Celebrity Recipes from Six Feet Under the Mistletoe just in time for the holidays.

The holiday edition will feature recipes from stars who have passed, like Dick Clark, Robert Mitchum and several recipes from Miracle on 34th Street actors. DeCaro said the film was a jackpot in terms of celebrity recipes.

As evidence this book is largely about paying homage to entertainment greats and little else, DeCaro concedes some of the recipes are actually downright disastrous. A few of the recipes’ names are even a giveaway to this end, such as Lucille Ball’s “Chinese-y thing.” (Just because you’re a great entertainer, doesn’t mean you’re a great cook or culinary innovator.)

“The recipe I always make fun of is Isabel Sanford’s Boston Chicken,” said DeCaro. The recipe’s sauce calls for Russian dressing, onion soup mix, pineapple and apricot jam.

“We call it Chicken a la Barf,” said DeCaro. He assured me it didn’t change his love for Isabel Sanford.

If anything, hopefully DeCaro’s book can humanize these stars a bit for readers too.

“There’s a recipe in the new book that’s just downright creepy,” added DeCaro, describing something like jelly consomme flakes in avocado. He made a retching noise over the phone as he described the recipe, and I was right there with him.

“But I love me some Bea Arthur,” he continued. “Even if you don’t try that recipe, you certainly need to watch the bootleg Star Wars holiday special.”

Of course the series also has its major culinary successes. One consistent favorite is Katharine Hepburn’s brownies from the original book.

“You don’t really want to eat Elvis’s peanut-butter-bacon-whatever,” DeCaro pointed out, “but people always say ‘make those [brownies] again.’”

Check out Frank DeCaro’s books for yourself: www.deadcelebritycookbook.com

THIS WEEKEND DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THE END OF THE LINE FOR THESE AUTUMN DELIGHTS

Thanksgiving is the last hurrah for the multitude of flavors that come together to spell “autumn” in our little lizard brains. Herbs like sage and rosemary, Brussels sprouts and squash, apples and ginger—soon we’ll say goodbye to all that and it’ll be all Christmas, all the time. Chocolate and peppermint will flavor absolutely everything—hell, they’ve already snuck their way into the Pringles can, once a bastion of salt. Orange and cinnamon will somehow find their way into the very air around you, like surplus oxygen pumped onto the casino floors in Vegas.

Some of this has to do with geographical seasonality—there’s only so much you can grow when there’s been 2 feet of snow on the ground for a month. But much more of it is due to the manufactured seasonality of holidays as consumer events. How are people supposed to go wild shopping for Christmas gifts on Black Friday if they still feel like it’s Thanksgiving, a time for being grateful for what you already have? How can you keep latte consumption running high without introducing a new limited-time-only flavor every three weeks?

Turns out seasonality means less and less these days, both from a meteorologic and a material perspective. Starbucks rolled out its holiday-branded cups weeks ago, along with all the eggnog/gingerbread/peppermint coffee-type beverages that go in them. And with a hurricane, massive snowstorm and mid-60s temperatures all within a week of each other, climate and season have only a passing acquaintance. So check out some of these autumnal flavors after Thanksgiving and assert your independence from the whole charade.

If you think you don’t like Brussels sprouts, you’re not alone. If all you’ve ever had are Aunt Gertie’s boiled-while-the-turkey’s-in rendition, there’s really not much to love. Cooked plainly, the little guys’ crucifer heritage comes out loud and clear, packing all the stench of boiled cabbage into a tiny, bite-sized parcel. But roasting opens them up to a world of caramelized sweetness, a slight bitter edge and the delightful contrast of tender interior and crisp exterior. Eat these anywhere, but especially at Mile End Sandwich (53 Bond St., mileenddeli.com), where they’re halved and tossed with shredded radicchio and a bacon vinaigrette that nestles in all the right crevices. It’s just the right thing to cut the richness of their signature Ruth Wilensky sandwich (that’s fried salami for us non- Montréalers).

Sure, there’ll be apple cider till Easter, but that over-spiced, over-sweetened hooch doesn’t do the apple justice. Over the years, New York has been home to some of the most brilliant apple breeders, who created a multitude of varieties that coax bright tartness, honeyed sweetness, floral undertones and more from the fruit. Go straight to the source at the Union Square farmers’ market, which is open all year round (apples keep for months in the right cold storage!), or try some of the seasonal sandwiches at Num Pang (21 E. 12th St. or 140 E. 41st St., numpangnyc.com), the Cambodian sandwich shop whose creations defy borders. Roasted, spiced chicken comes with slices of pickled apple, turkey breast is topped with a very Thanksgiving cranberry-apple chutney, and glazed pork belly is accompanied by Asian pear (OK, not an apple, but just as autumnal!).

For a full-on one-two punch of fall, try Crispo (240 W. 14th St., crisporestaurant.com) and their butternut squash tortelloni with chestnuts and sage. The below-the-radar Northern Italian spot (no mean feat for a restaurant that sits right on 14th Street) serves a variety of soul-warming pastas in a romantically low-lit, brick-lined room, along with plenty of their signature ingredients: prosecco, prosciutto and parmigiano. But the handmade pockets of rich, dense squash sweetened by the street vendor favorite, roasted chestnuts, and made savory with browned butter and fried sage, take the seasonal prize.

By Samuel Chamberlain

Now in its third year, the “New Taste of the Upper West Side” festival has grown, adding several events to its weekend-long celebration of the neighborhood’s burgeoning culinary scene.

Foodies can get started early Friday morning with a panel discussion about healthy eating, school lunch programs and buying local, hosted by the American Museum of Natural History. The panel is slated to include Ellie Krieger of the Food Network and Steve Cuozzo of the New York Post, as well as restaurateurs Bill Telepan and John Fraser and nutritional expert Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Proceeds will go toward Wellness in Schools, an organization that promotes healthy eating and fitness among students.

“We’ve sold 700 tickets, which we’re astounded by,” said Don Evans, event chairman for New Taste of the Upper West Side, which West Side Spirit sponsors.

Wellness in Schools was founded in 2005 by Nancy Easton. At the time, Easton was teaching at a school on the Lower East Side, where the effects of kids’ poor eating habits shocked her.

Bill Telepan

“There was lack of physical activity, inability to focus, behavioral issues,” Easton said. “Then I’d watch them after school, and they’d go to the convenience store to get a bottle of Coke and a bag of Doritos.”

The cornerstone of Wellness in Schools’ program is its Cook for Kids program, which is designed to introduce healthier school lunch foods. The program is currently in eight schools, and the organization is planning to expand it into another 12 schools this fall.

Telepan, who now directs the Cook for Kids program—in addition to his duties as master chef at his eponymous restaurant—began working with Wellness in the Schools in 2008. He has made school lunch improvement a priority since he first began volunteering at P.S. 87, where his daughter, Leah, attends elementary school.

“It’s great to be able to use my skills for good,” Telepan said. “It’s great to help kids whose school meal is the most important meal of the day.”

The program is concentrated in high-poverty areas, including the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn and East Harlem.

“Those are places where, unfortunately, poverty and obesity are inextricably linked,” Easton said.

However, the program is also coming to schools in Washington Heights and the Lower East Side, and Easton hopes the panel at the New Taste festival will help spread these ideas.

“We’re trying to appeal to parents,” Easton said. “We have a very nice group of chefs and people who work in these areas and know a lot about healthy eating, so we’re really trying to appeal to parents.”

Telepan also hopes to get the word out to new groups.

“Hopefully we can help each other out and exchange ideas, rather than just raising issues,” he said.

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“A Conversation With…,” May 21, American Museum of Natural History, LeFrak Theater, West 77th Street entrance (betw. Central Park West and Columbus avenue), www.newtasteuws.com; 9:30 p.m., $25 to $35.

“One day, I cooked pasta with cheese. My wife asked me how I did it,” Ramos said. “She likes the way I cook now.”

Ramos’ new culinary repertoire is the result of a 12-week course he took at the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, a food pantry housed in the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, on West 86th Street and Broadway. He started volunteering there at the suggestion of a friend from church.

Ramos, who lives in The Bronx, is one of the program’s 132 graduates, many of whom return to volunteer their time and cook alongside current students. He signed up for the chef training and cooking program and completed the course about six months ago. The course imbued him with a desire to learn more, and he is now taking a class on cakes—in addition to waking up at 6:30 a.m. every day to travel to the Upper West Side and volunteer.

Chef and nutritionist Mark D’Alessandro looks over the work of (from left) Manny Ramos, Julissa Lopez and Matilde Lachapel. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

“I like the way they treat people,” Ramos said of the program, while eating a plate of chicken, rice and salad he helped prepare one day last month.

Now in the middle of its 24th session, the class teaches students and graduates cooking techniques, safety measures and nutrition. Each class begins with taking food straight from the pantry—outside food is banned from the kitchen—and studying the labels, nutritional facts and list of ingredients.

“We take students into the pantry in the morning and say, ‘What are we going to make for lunch?’” said Mark D’Alessandro, the program’s chef and nutritionist.

Part of the lesson includes cooking lunch for volunteers at the grocery store-style food pantry. Many of those volunteers—who can number 20 to 30 people on any given day—are clients of the pantry as well. Pantry use has grown 39 percent in the past two years.

The chef program started in January 2002 with the goal of teaching clients who were using the pantry the skills needed to cook healthy meals at home.

“We saw the need not just to give people food, but to educate them about healthy living,” said Stewart Desmond, development director at the West Side Campaign Against Hunger.

Students, many of whom are Latino, are chosen by the food pantry staff. Successful candidates for the program must demonstrate that they are interested in a food industry career, or may have a health condition that could be alleviated by a balanced diet. For some, finishing the course increases kitchen skills, which may result in better pay.

“There are a lot of jobs you can grow in if you increase your cooking skills. Home health care attendant is a good example of that,” Desmond said.

The program emphasizes nutrition and safe food preparation, and lessons are focused on learning to cook without draining food of essential vitamins. In the kitchen, counters are stringently disinfected with chlorine. Students even get a vial to make sure the level of chlorine used to clean surfaces is satisfactory.

Guest lecturers from New York University and Hunter College also stop by.

“If you’re going to give people food, give them more. Give them a nutrition education,” D’Alessandro said.

D’Alessandro, a 30-year-old “farm boy from northern Kentucky living in New York City,” came to the West Side Campaign Against Hunger a year ago with an extensive background in the food industry. He was a butcher for two-and-a-half years and he studied at a Cordon Bleu program in Miami. For the past four years, he has been teaching at the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts through Kingsborough Community College.

The rewarding part of the program, D’Alessandro said, is when students bring home the lessons they learn.

“We want them to cook a healthy balanced meal for their family in a nutritional and safe way,” he said.

Martina Santos, who was eight weeks in to the chef program, said she was already trying to include vegetables in her family’s diet. She admitted to sneaking chopped broccoli into her 14-year-old granddaughter’s food.

“I tell her why it’s important to eat vegetables because [D’Alessandro] is teaching me about nutrition,” Santos said.

But the program is more than a crash course in food for Santos, who has been diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder. Classes motivate her to wake up in the morning, and she volunteers at the kitchen every day. After her lesson is over, she works in the pantry.

“I’m supposed to be here only on Monday and Wednesday,” Santos said. “But every day, you learn something new.”