IRON CHEF

After his life was derailed by a serious illness, cover guy and chef Scott Parker didn’t just recover, he rebuilt his approach to life, food and getting ripped. Use his recipe to turn up the heat on your workouts and tap into true grit.

- KIERAN LEGG

BEING A CHEF doesn’t just arm you with the skills to materialise jaw-dropping dishes out of whatever is lying around in the fridge. If you’re the type of guy who wants to be healthy, strong and look the part, this toolkit makes you more than just a man counting macros; you’re now an architect with the ability to design each plate to deliver the perfect balance of nutrition and taste. With a combo of CrossFit and good – read: really good – eating, chef Scott Parker had forged the type of body all men strive for. At the beginning of this year he was 32, working his dream job as the product development manger for culinary innovation at Woolworths, and close to the best shape of his life. He had his year mapped out. He knew which PBs he was going to crush, the types of dishes he wanted to create, and challenges he wanted to tackle. What he didn’t expect was to find himself confined to a hospital bed after suffering a pulmonary embolism.

It was the end of January. Scott had gone out to walk his dog when he was rocked with a series of chest pains. He was dizzy, and feeling incredibly nauseous, like he’d woken up nursing a secret, killer hangover. He barely made it home before collapsing on the floor. That’s where his wife found him when she returned later that day. The trip to the hospital was a blur.