Netflix's 'Cooking with Paris' is a self-aware fantasy you'll just fall into
Seeing a dozen different types of cheese congeal between the rhinestones on Paris Hilton’s serving spoon, I felt closer to the heiress-turned-influencer than ever before. Not only did I learn we both have an affinity for overly decadent macaroni and cheese, but using an obviously decorative utensil in a way sure to ruin it is the kind of kitchen shenanigan I relate to deeply.
And watching Paris shrug off the incident like it hadn’t happened at all? That’s just pure fantasy.
In Netflix’s Cooking with Paris, an unconventional cooking show that sees Hilton invite guests over for meals she only sort of knows how to make, self-confidence is key. Where the Food Network might dazzle us with a dish’s ease, speed, or creativity, Cooking with Paris boasts things made by Paris Hilton — period. The show’s purpose, Hilton repeatedly explains in the series’ intro, isn’t for Paris to become a professional chef. She just wants to “mix it up” so she’s “expanding her repertoire” with these new recipes, created by her and her friends.
Theoretically, you could join Hilton as she cooks alongside Kim Kardashian West, Demi Lovato, Nikki Glaser, Saweetie, Lele Pons, and sister Nicky and mom Kathy Hilton. But it’s immediately apparent the point of this show isn’t so much to learn from Hilton, as it is to hang out with her. Even as helpful cooking tips like “These are tongs!” fly across the screen, it’s Hilton’s kaleidoscopic personality that keeps the show feeling like a high-budget version of her YouTube show genuinely worth binging.
Between the edible glitter and aimless internet searching — “What is zest lemon?” Hilton earnestly asks Google in episode 2 — the pop culture icon lets her unique personality pull you into the fun of this Barbie Dreamhouse-meets-Nailed It! hybrid. In each of Cooking with Paris’ six episodes, Hilton invites over a guest who helps her cook (or try to cook) a meal that is later served against an extravagant, themed backdrop, with Hilton sporting an outfit made to match.
These culinary experiments have mixed results. But what actually happens in the series’ all-too-brief first season is fairly predictable. The Frosted Flake-encrusted french toast works great, because how could it not? Hilton breaks an industrial-grade blender, because how could she not? These hijinks are enjoyable if you’re someone fully onboard with Hilton’s brand of celebrity, but if you’re someone looking to be newly won over by the former The Simple Life star you won’t have much luck. From the jump, Cooking with Paris assumes you want to be “cooking with Paris” — and considering the star’s tumultuous Hollywood history that may not be true for all viewers.
If you are someone who wants to like Cooking with Paris, you will need to understand Hilton’s evolving personal history and complicated relationship to the modern fame economy. Her self-produced documentary This Is Paris, which was released last year free on YouTube, offers a first-hand account of Hilton’s experiences with childhood abuse and toxic celebrity that provide essential context for understanding her as a pop culture figure. With that knowledge, watching Hilton crack jokes with Whitney Cummings or talk motherhood with Kardashian feels less like a flagrant display of privilege than a pleasant next chapter for a complicated person.
Though Hilton's theatrical personality can feel grating on occasion and her bedazzled collection of pandemic-era face masks a bit on the nose, Cooking with Paris is a cutesy cooking show Hilton fans will appreciate. Above all, it lets Paris be Paris — paving the way for messy cooks with completely impractical fantasies of jeweled cookware everywhere.