j8ear

I asked my mother about this and she thought your reasoning sounded very plausible.

She did mention two other things:

1. It's spelled pâté chinois, since pâté is masculine. This fact changed my google results significantly, but still nothing definative.
2. Chinoiserie is a mixture of things...which is in essence what a pâté chinois is. Of course, this begs the question, which came first Chinoiserie or pâté chinois?

I suspect the actual answer will be very similar to why they call it "Shephard's Pie" in English.

-bear

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