Le Chinois Brioche

Learnt something new today….. This type of French brioche is called Le Chinois because of a popular French idiom. It actually originates from Germany and the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, where its traditional name is Schneckenkuchen (literally meaning “snail cake” due to its spiral, snail-like shape).
When the pastry was first imported into wider France bakers understandably found Schneckenkuchen entirely impossible to pronounce. In French, when something is completely incomprehensible, people say, “C’est du chinois” (literally, “It’s Chinese to me”). The nickname stuck. Bakers referred to the cake as “that Chinese stuff,” and the shorthand nickname Chinois permanently stuck as its official French name.
So now you know too…