The John Folse Culinary Institute will present the 13th Annual Lafacadio Hearn Award Dinner and Distinguished Visiting Chef Series Thursday.The event will begin with a cocktail reception at 6 p.m. in the Cotillion Ballroom, and at 7 p.m. the Distinguished Visiting Chef presentation and dinner will begin.

The dinner will honor Jessica Harris, culinary historian, author, journalist and tenured faculty member at Queens College, City University of New York. Harris is the author of 11 cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora.

“Harris has written extensively about the Caribbean influence in Cajun culture,” Randy Cheramie, instructor at the Culinary Institute, said. This is where the theme for the dinner originated.

Harris has contributed to magazines including “Essence” and “German Vogue.” She frequently appears as a television guest on networks such as NBC, ABC and the Food Network. Harris is also a renowned lecturer.

“Being honored at the Lafacadio Hearn Dinner is like being inducted into the ‘Hall of Fame,'” Cheramie said. “We honor somebody that has a good body of work that promotes the Louisiana culture and cuisine.”

The menu at the dinner will consist of pumpkin soup with sofrito and cumin-roasted garbanzo beans, green banana escabeche salad, pulled garlic-roasted pork with tamarind rum sauce, Puerto Rican rice with pigeon peas, spicy callaloo with peppers and onions, rum-soaked sponge cake with traditional caramel flan and tropical fruit sauces.

Patricia Wilson, professor of culinary arts at Johnson and Wales University in Miami will cook the meal for the dinner. Wilson worked at the Miami campus for 10 years. Prior to moving to Miami, Wilson lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico where she hosted a talk radio program called “What’s Cooking with Patricia?” and wrote a weekly food column called “From Soup to Salsa” for a newspaper called the “San Juan Star.