A good grounding, a wise head, and a heart full of love makes this cook so inspiring, says Claire Spreadbury. Nadiya Hussain is, without doubt, The Great British Bake Off's most successful winner.

Two years ago this month, the Luton-born mother-of-three first appeared on our TV screens, all wide-eyes and eyebrows, and won the hearts of the nation as well as the competition. 

You might not remember anything she actually cooked all series, but there isn't a single Bake Off fan who wasn't stirred by her victory speech. "I'm never going to put boundaries on myself ever again," she declared, as we all watched on teary-eyed. "I'm never going to say I can't do it. I can. And I will."

And she has. From fronting her own TV programmes and appearing on talk shows, game shows and cookery shows, to releasing four cookbooks and being asked to bake a cake for the Queen, it's been a decidedly busy 24 months.

"I can't believe it's been two years already," says the cook, 32, when we meet to discuss her latest project, a TV show and cookbook called Nadiya's British Food Adventure. "I've been so busy, it feels like a bit of a blur. It's all happened so fast. I'm having a blast though!"

She's as lovely in person as she comes across on TV. Those big brown eyes beaming back you as she talks so passionately about food and family life. Claiming "British food has become a melting pot of cuisines and cultures", Nadiya wanted to find out what was being eaten in the hubs of our homes, before getting creative in her own kitchen and coming up with her take on Brit-style cooking.

"Because I'm from Bangladesh, from England, Muslim, a mixture of a little bit of everything, I've always asked myself, 'What makes me British?' And if somebody asks me what British food is, I'd say it's what I eat at home.

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"What I ate at home as a child was rice and curry, and then at school, I'd have pie and mash - to me, that's British food. And I think everybody's own experiences shape what British food is for them. So it was really interesting to go on that journey and find out what my interpretation is. 

"And apart from what I grew up with and what I eat now, what I found, travelling between Scotland and Wales and parts of England, is that there's no hard and fast rule. It's actually about what British food has become - all these different cuisines and cultures, and that's exactly what the book's about. It's recipes that I love and think make up what British food is today. I'm really proud of it."

Cooking has always been a big part of Nadiya's life. She started around age 8, "copying her dad", who used to run restaurants, and asking her mum questions in the kitchen.

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"My mum is an amazing cook. She was a stay-at-home mum who would cook for all of us [Nadiya has five siblings]. She never wanted us to learn how to cook. She always said, 'No, no, you will not be doomed with a life of cooking for your extended family. Do whatever you want, but don't cook'. She still doesn't enjoy it but she's amazing.

"For me, cooking is about being creative but sharing it as well," Nadiya adds, the royal blue fluted sleeves of her blouse (which she told me earlier were massively impractical when going to the toilet) wafting as she gesticulates. "That's the fun bit - knowing that somebody gets to eat something delicious."

Asked what it is that makes her so likeable and Nadiya is stuck for words. She shrugs her shoulders, cracks a beautiful open smile and says: "I don't know, I'm just me. Whether I'm talking to you, on telly or whatever it is I'm doing, I don't ever try to be anything other than myself. Perhaps that's what people see?

"Having kids means you've got to have a sunny disposition about everything too. I probably wasn't as happy as I am now, but since having them, I've learned to find the good in everything."

And she takes everything in her stride as and when it comes along. There's no life plan. "Nah, I don't set myself any goals," she says, without hesitation. "What's happened over the last two years, I didn't plan for any of it. I didn't plan to go on Bake Off - my husband did the application. 

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"I didn't plan on winning it, I just completely fluked that. I never planned anything up to this point, and I think that works because I'm a strong believer in 'here today, gone tomorrow'. I don't believe anything's forever.

"We all have to go and, as morbid as that sounds, that's what makes me enjoy every single day. Life is too short to be doing something you don't love."

Nadiya's British Food Adventure by Nadiya Hussain is published by Michael Joseph, priced £20. Available now. The accompanying TV show is on BBC Two on Mondays, and also on BBC iPlayer.