Last year, nearly six million viewers watched Shelina Permalloo crowned MasterChef champion 2012. Her triumph was the result of her instinctive spicing, intense flavours and vibrant and elegant dishes. Her passion and enthusiasm were infectious as she presented Mauritian cooking for the first time on television, inspiring legions of home cooks to try out her recipes in their own kitchens.

And she will be doing just that when she appears at The Happy Foodie Festival in Rickmansworth on Saturday, demonstrating four recipes from her newly-published debut cookery book, Sunshine on a Plate.

“I’m basically going to be doing a three-course meal,“ laughs the 31-year-old former equality and diversity project manager.

“I’ll be doing a street food starter of mini roti bread with a really lovely and delicious and fragrant butterbean curry, followed by grilled swordfish with pomegranate, saffron and lots of other lovely spices. And then I’m going to be making a pudding – a lime, mango and rum syllabub.

“The whole demonstration should take me about 45 minutes. I want to show people how easy the recipes are and how it is simple to construct really beautiful-tasting food with a sunshine twist. It takes no time at all.“

This winning combination, taste and ease, was one of the reasons the nation, and the MasterChef judges, took Shelina to their hearts, and is what her cookery book is all about.

It came out in June and, she says, holding that first copy in her hands, was a magical moment for her.

“It took about 20 minutes to sink in,“ she laughs.

“I held it against my chest and then I cried! It was a really overwhelming sense of achievement.

“You work so hard on something and then you see it come to fruition and hold a physical copy of it – I was really, really proud.“

Shelina explains that about 60 per cent of the recipes in the book are traditionally Mauritian – “in the sense of recipes I was brought up eating“ – and 40 per cent adaptations of Mauritian-style cooking with her own twist.

“Mauritian is definitely where I fit in to the market,“ says the Tooting resident, who grew up in Southampton after her parents moved there in the 1970s, “but I do like to experiment with lots of different flavours. I’m particularly inspired by Thai cuisine, North African food, and Mexican. Wherever I’m inspired, that’s where I like to take my food as well. But the book really is an ode to Mauritius.“

Shelina gave up her job before entering MasterChef, which was the first stage of her plan to make a living out of cooking, and, since winning, she has become something of an old-hand at cookery festivals and demonstrations.

“I really enjoy them,“ she says, “although I do still get really nervous. My first ever live experience was at Bluewater Shopping Centre last year – I had thousands of people watching me and I honestly couldn’t even breathe! Greg Wallace and John Torode, the MasterChef judges, had to help me before I went on because I had a near-on panic attack.

“But I soon realised that people are there rooting you on and there’s a genuine desire to understand the different types of food, and everyone is so friendly. It’s lovely meeting like-minded people.“

Two very special people in the audience at all her demonstrations are her mum and her auntie, from whom she inherited her love of cooking.

“They’re both amazing cooks and they’re both really happy about what I’ve achieved. I can see them in the audience looking at me and thinking ‘What’s she done to this recipe?’“ she laughs. “But they’ve been massively supportive, it’s been really lovely.“

Shelina can’t reveal the details yet, but it looks likely that she will be opening her own restaurant sometime next year.

And she can’t say yet where it’s going to be, either. Is it likely to be Watford?

“Well, I could push for Watford,“ she laughs.

Ah well, we’ll just have to make do with seeing her at The Happy Foodie Festival and with whipping up her delicious recipes at home.