Watch Cooking With Paris for the comedy and the sheer fun of it

Paris Hilton turned 40 this year. Let that sink in for a moment. She became famous for not much more than being the daughter of a hotel magnate when she was about half this age – singing, modelling, clubbing, and a sex tape – a celebrity created by celebrity culture. 

And then came The Simple Life with her former gal pal Nicole Richie and we all gawped at her ridiculously extravagant lifestyle, apparently empty noggin and complete detachment from the “real” world. Paris claimed to have invented the selfie, and we all know that’s not true, but full marks for audacity.

Apparently devoid of any kind of real talent, Paris Whitney Hilton has, however, mastered the art of self-promotion and perhaps she isn’t quite a dumb as we’ve been led to believe. She is, after all, the one living in the lap of luxury and a media star – if that’s how you measure success and happiness.

The Simple Life showed the airhead heiress tackling everyday chores and jobs; in her new Netflix Original Series, Cooking With Paris, she takes on the kitchen. The first episode opens with her flouncing around a supermarket in a spectacular cerise ballgown with an oversized diamanté detailed bow on her butt. Heels of course, and a sparkly mask.

One thing that hasn’t changed a bit over the past couple of decades is Paris’s love affair with bling. It’s on her, on the signature fingerless gloves she wears all the time, even when cooking, practicality be damned; as well as  on her kitchen utensils and her cutesy-poo recipe book, heavily bedazzled and sequinned and written in different colours that would not look out of place in a 13-year-old’s backpack.

There’s never an apron in sight because that would just ruin the designer gear, and being so obsessed with appearance, hair and make up – all the time – must be exhausting. Believe if you will that Kim Kardashian makes breakfast for four children every day when she panics about a dab of blue marshmallow on her face.

Paris is still playing the shallow dummy for all she is worth, talking slowly, asking what chives are even, and moving through a sequence of pouty poses that I assume are supposed to be seductive. For each episode she is joined by a friend – Kim Kardashian, Saweetie, Demi Lovato, Nikki Glaser, Lele Pons, and her sister and mom Nicky and Kathy Hilton – some of whom have better cooking skills than her, others do not.

What you absolutely have to realise is that this show is not to be taken seriously. Paris is useless in the kitchen, but she knows her limitations so her recipes include French toast crusted with Frosted Flakes and instant cake mix. Watch it for the comedy, for the sheer fun of it, even if you roll your eyes at the unicorns and the catchphrase “sliving” (“slaying” and “living your best life”, Lord save us).

“How you receive Cooking With Paris, Paris Hilton’s first Netflix series, is contingent on whether you view it as a nifty PR exercise or a delicious morsel of escapism. It is almost certainly both, but we’re choosing to lean into the latter because regardless of intent, it’s a delight,” says Digital Spy.

ICYMI: Paris is due to wed Carter Reum (her fourth fiancé) next year and is rumoured to be pregnant; she does mention having children in the show.

Cooking With Paris, continues Digital Spy, is “a safe, non-threatening space that you can curl up inside when you want to watch something that is fluffy and harmless and nice, which can sometimes be code for bland, but it’s absolutely meant as a compliment here.”

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