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Netflix’s Cooking with Paris is an unconventional cooking show, starring, as you might expect, Paris Hilton. I have a secret affinity for cooking shows, though I don’t really believe I’ll ever live up to chef status. So maybe, when I first saw the announcements that Paris was launching her own cooking show, I really believed her shtick: “I love cooking, but I’m not a trained chef.”
I guess I was hoping it would be a bit more than just a couple of bumbling (albeit A-list) celebrities burning the bedazzled-marshmallow concoction. The creations remind me of something my youngest calls his “experiments” as he carefully tries to entice us to participate in his taste tests.
The cooking show feels like a complete 360-away or time-warp away from the This is Paris open-and-honest approach of her YouTube-launched documentary, which was a hit with 22 million views to date. There, it felt like she was moving in new directions, pushing to use her social privilege to inspire change.
The cooking show feels like a fall back to a more comfortable space inhabited by The Simple Life, dragged into the spotlight again thanks mainly to the enticements of the celebrity line up. What, really, is the point? Maybe, it’s more about throwing EVERYTHING at us and hoping something sticks.
After all, she’s also launching the wedding tell-all, Paris in Love, a 13-episode docuseries on Peacock TV. She says, “I really want my fans and everyone to see that I did finally get my happy, fairy tale ending and just showing the next part of my life. So, I just feel now I’m an open book, I’ve put it all out there.”
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If there was ever any doubt, she continues, “I have nothing to hide, and I’m just so proud of how everything is today, and I just feel like my fans will really enjoy just seeing this like, maybe one of the most special moments of my life.”
True to form, her return to reality TV was bound to carry with it some semblance of controversy and drama. The question is, does she really need all that drama? She posted the original Cooking with Paris video to YouTube in January 2020. And, while she struggled with grating mozzarella cheese and cooking lasagna noodles, she seemed more real and down to Earth.
In her 2020 cooking video, Paris says that she’s “sliving” – her own slang, which is something of a mash-up between “slaying” and “living your best life.” That YouTube episode was a slightly different version of Paris, sans her celebrity friends and with a more straightforward approach to a lasagna recipe she says she remembers making with her mom as a kid.
But, oh, what a difference a year makes. Her Netflix Cooking with Paris is a new vision of Paris. She’s joined by Demi Lovato for an attempt at caprese salad, Kim Kardashian for frittatas, and even her mom and sister for steak.
Paris doesn’t take herself too seriously, and perhaps that’s part of the charm that’s left to us from her earlier version. The Netflix series feels a bit like watching an episode of Nailed it, where the chef/baker/cooking aficionados really believe they have culinary expertise to offer.
What did we expect? She admits via the press release that she’s “newly domesticated,” which probably implies that we can’t expect a culinary masterpiece. The initial six-episode run on Netflix is only supposed to be a learning experience for Paris. I don’t see any mention of her audience learning to cook. It’s more like watching a dumpster fire and being unable to turn away.
Cooking tip: THESE ARE TONGS 😭#CookingWithParis #Sliving pic.twitter.com/YBHBoDiqbx
— JA Can Talk (@jacantalk) August 11, 2021
Whatever version of Paris we see on the Netflix cooking-show screen, her life off-screen includes the recent launch of her production company, Slivington Manor Entertainment—which she says was “a dream come true.” She also signed an overall deal at Warner Bros. Unscripted Television.
Paris is an original influencer, and that claim to fame never really stopped. So, perhaps we should just sit back, enjoy the ride for what it is, and wait until we see the next iteration that is Paris Hilton. We’re only really seeing what she wants us to see.
(It feels a bit like that scene in Wizard of Oz when Dorthy discovers that the Great Oz is nothing more than a man behind a curtain with a series of smoke and mirrors.)
How is she any different from most other celebrities? We see different sides of them, and we cobble together those scraps into something like a mosaic of whom we think they are. Paris has already reinvented herself a few times. So, whether you love her or hate her for her absurdity, it doesn’t really matter.
It is what it is: a show that arose from the 2020 insanity as an insincere comedy of error, signifying nothing. As long as we can still laugh at ourselves and with each other, everything else will work itself out. Paris taught us that a long time ago…
What are your thoughts on Cooking with Paris? Do you love it? Hate it? Sound off in the comments below!
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