Featured Chefs
Click below to read more about our Featured Chefs at UMD!
Tom Linderholm, Assistant Director of Culinary
Tom Linderholm is an area outdoor enthusiast, Lake Superior charter captain, and a seasoned executive chef. His passions paired together have given him the great ability to prepare local/ regional fish and game in a way only a true outdoorsman can. Tom’s career began in Minneapolis where he learned the basics of scratch cooking with some of the Twin Cities best chefs. It was there that he learned why certain ingredients complimented individual dishes.
After several years in Minneapolis, Tom moved to the mountains of Beaver Creek where he spent three years at one of Colorado’s top ten restaurants, Beano’s Cabin. During his tenure, he had the opportunity to work with the local ingredients including various game, stream trout, foraged mushrooms, and Front Range crops.
Those interests and talents continued to develop on the North Shore of Lake Superior with Duluth based Odyssey Resorts where Tom dubbed “North Shore Cuisine” as Odyssey’s Corporate Chef using various ethnic and regional influences on his menus. During his 11 year tenure, he built three restaurants, multiple grand events and ice bars, and influenced hundreds of culinary staff in the area. Tom has created countless North Shore dishes distinguishing himself as one of the premier chefs in the region.
Tom continues his culinary influence here at UMD. He is embracing the challenge of blending his knowledge of regional/local fare with the current University menu offerings as well as influencing students' eating habits. He takes great pride in mentoring staff through training and competitions and has been successful in elevating culinary careers.
Channie McCall, Executive Chef
Channie McCall began working in the restaurant industry in the mid 90’s while balancing a full plate as a single mother and finishing school. Unknown to Channie, her means to support her family throughout her time in school would ultimately become her passion. While attending college for massage therapy she continued in various roles in regional Minnesota restaurants, only to favor the culinary arts over her original thought of being a massage therapist.
Channie has held multiple management roles over the years, even working as a sous chef in Hawaii. In 2014 her former chef had sought her out to apply for a position at UMD and she graciously accepted the position. While working as a cook on the UMD campus, Channie competed in two culinary competitions landing a bronze medal at the National Association of College & University Food Services (NACUFS) regional conference in 2016, and a silver medal at the NACUFS regional conference in 2018.
Channie’s new role as the Executive Chef at UMD has been one of her biggest accomplishments. Although she has only been in the role for a short time she has worked hard throughout her years here on campus, taking on some of the challenges of feeding students with dietary restrictions. She specializes in working with vegan and vegetarian cuisine. In Channie’s words “everyone deserves a delicious meal.”
Steven Rantala, Sous Chef
Steven Rantala first learned to cook while working for the dining center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he was getting his degree in education. After college, he spent two years as a sous chef at Epic Software Company where he learned to cook from scratch in large batches as he would prepare ethnically diverse lunch menus every day for 4,000-5,000 people.
When he moved to Duluth in 2016 he got a job as a line cook at Lake Avenue Restaurant and worked his way up to become their sous chef.
“This is where I really learned the restaurant side of the industry and broadened my culinary skill set,” said Rantala. “Instead of using three to four techniques in a day, I could use up to 50!”
Rantala worked at Lake Avenue for three years until he came to UMD in the summer of 2019.
He enjoys cooking with Korean flavors and playing around with the fermentation process.