Aftan has served for the last 10 years as Director of Research & Development, Purchasing and Risk Assessment for Steak-Out Franchising, Inc., a home meal replacement concept specializing in delivery of cooked-to-order steak, chicken, and seafood entrees, burgers and sandwiches, and specialty salads for 70 franchise units in the Southeastern United States.
He is a member of the Research Chefs of America and The Institute of Food Technologists. Aftan has been published in over 40 articles, including three feature stories, five cover stories in Nation’s Restaurant News, and a feature article in the New York Times on Food Safety Communication. He has also presented at several of the industry’s premier conferences. Aftan was a panel member on the 2003 NRN Food Safety Roundtable; He was a speaker on Dealing with Risk in a Brave New World at MUFSO 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia. He spoke at the Foodservice Symposium 2005 on Managing the Threat of Food-borne Illness and in 2007; he spoke on Emerging Food Safety technologies. He has presented at the Food Safety Summit in Washington, D.C. In 2007, he received an award from Foodservice and Packaging Institute for Innovation in Food Safety Packaging.
Aftan has been a foodservice professional for 26 years. His career started with Grisanti, Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky where he served as General Manager of Sixth Avenue – an American Regional Cuisine restaurant that hosted the First Symposium on American Cuisine in 1982. Aftan also served as General Manager of Casa Grisanti, the only Mobil Four Star restaurant in Kentucky during the 1980’s, and helped develop the Grisanti Casual Italian Restaurant chain.
After spending over a decade working for Michael Grisanti, former President of the National Restaurant Association, Aftan was approached by John Y. Brown, the former Governor of Kentucky and President of Kentucky Fried Chicken, to help develop a rotisserie chicken concept called “Kenny Rogers Roasters” As Director of Research & Development, Aftan spearheaded menu development as the chain grew to over 350 units domestically and 50 units internationally before joining Steak-Out.