She is currently working out suggested set meals to help customers get the best out of Sichuan's dynamic, fiery, fragrant traditions.
If you don't like chillies you probably won't find Bar Shu a very rewarding place to eat, but heat is not really the point here.
It is more about the layering of flavours and the alchemic effect that the consumption of one dish can have on the appreciation of another.
Also, among the more flamboyant assemblies that are ankle-deep in Sichuan "facing-heaven" chillies, there are other dishes which have a mellow, melting effect summed up as "lychee flavour" and soothing items such as the soups - which are usually eaten at the end of the meal to refresh the palate.
We tried two, which were brought at any old point in the parade of dishes.
One comprised beef balls in a delicate broth and the other was of chicken with silver ear fungus and medicinal milk vetch root.
They were superb, the latter quite eerily delicious and managing to achieve a singular kind of liquescence.
Sichuan pepper (hua jiao) is a distinguishing spice. It has a woody aroma and the almost narcotic effect of numbing and tingling the lips and tongue.
Chillies eaten with or after Sichuan pepper have a less potent immediate effect on the palate. To put this notion to the test, try the dish of baked sea bass in spicy soup.
Some individual dishes seem highly priced but they are served in quantity - enough for at least four to share.
Other dishes tried over two dinners (so far) I would enthusiastically recommend are: appetiser of duck rolls where meat is wrapped around salted duck egg yolks and thinly sliced; slithery buckwheat noodles with chicken in a hot-sour sauce, which looked nothing like its photograph.
Also to be recommended are the Sichuan chicken, which is heavenly and will tingle your tongue; "pock-marked Mother Chen's" beancurd; Cos lettuce in sesame sauce and seeds and the smokedmeat platter.
At the second dinner Reg and I also asked for Man-and-Wife offal slices, but they never materialised.
Pickled vegetables, briefly brined in the style known as "water-shower", should be part of any order, and another vegetable dish that shouldn't be missed is deep-fried green beans tossed with minced pork and tangy preserved mustard greens.
We also liked water spinach stir-fried with garlic.
A main course of Dongpo pork knuckle was fabulous. It is named after Song Dynasty poet Su Dongpo, who so loved pork that he wrote a poem about it.
Here is mine: "Dongpo pork/ Just get it on your fork/ Or you might prefer to use chopsticks." A haiku really.
There is lots I want to, and will, go back for. For example braised beef with bamboo shoots, fragrant and hot crab, steamed turbot with salted chillies and fireexploded kidney flowers.
I also mean to drop in to eat street snacks of dan-dan noodles, crescent dumplings in chilli-oil sauce and sweet potato noodles with mixed meats and offal.
And then there is the Sichuan hot-pot (huo guo). But that will be another story.
Bar Shu has a predominantly Chinese clientele, thrilled to find well executed what is now the most fashionable food in China.
Staff are helpful, in some cases sweetly groovy, and they are numerous. If you want to drink something more speedy than tea, there is a well-thought-out and not over-priced wine list.
