In her more than 20 years in the public eye, Paris Hilton has been a lot of things. Among them, a notorious party girl, a fragrance mogul, and the original influencer. But now she’s establishing herself in an entirely different lane: your home kitchen. In 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hilton debuted Cooking With Paris, a series in which she and her celebrity friends (including her former employee, Kim Kardashian) cooked dishes like French toast and lasagna in Hilton’s chic kitchen.
Cooking With Paris was a sleeper hit, and in the years following its debut, Hilton has further emerged as a voice in the culinary world. Earlier this year, she released her Be An Icon cookware collection at Walmart, a mostly-pink assortment of pots and pans, coffee presses, and heart-shaped baking dishes that sold out almost instantly. Now, she’s the latest celebrity to venture behind the bar as Grey Goose’s “creative director of martinis,” a tongue-in-cheek “job” that’s part of an ad campaign to promote the brand’s new pre-made bottled martini.
On the heels of Hilton’s big year, Eater sat down to talk with the queen of sliving about why her baby pink cookware is a response to the traditionally “boring” cookware landscape, her favorite dishes to cook at home, and whether or not her cult-favorite cooking show will ever make a comeback.
Eater: Your career trajectory has been the definition of wide-ranging. You’ve built a fragrance empire, dabbled in fashion, and been on television. How did you end up making cookware and shaking martinis?
Paris Hilton: Well, I do it all. I love food. I have my amazing cookware line at Walmart, and it’s just been killing it and selling out everywhere. That made me feel so happy and so proud. I wanted to make things that I would actually use in the kitchen. Looking at all the kitchenware available online and in stores, I just noticed it was so boring and not fun. I didn’t really see any pink. I just saw rusty, like, silver and boring colors. It seemed like there was something missing. I wanted to elevate people’s kitchens and make it more fun for them to cook. I want everyone to feel like an icon, even in the kitchen. Everyone should feel iconic no matter where they are.
And obviously, I always loved going out and Grey Goose has always been my favorite vodka. I love to order martinis when I go out, they’re so chic. With the bottled martini, you literally just shake it, pour it, and enjoy. You get the glam of a martini without actually having to figure out how to make it yourself. Before this, I would’ve had no idea how to make a martini.
Did you have to deal with skepticism from people who didn’t trust that you had the expertise to make good cookware? How did you find your place in this industry that’s traditionally been dominated by legacy brands and celebrity chefs?
Throughout my career, I feel that I’ve always been underestimated and proven people wrong. I actually do love being in the kitchen, I love to cook, and I love having fun with everything I do. I’ve always been an original and someone who does things first, but I’ve also proven myself in many ways, many times over my past two decades in this industry.
What do you like to cook at home?
My “sliving lasagna” is my favorite, of course. I’ve been cooking it my entire life. I love it so much. For breakfast on the weekends, I love to make egg white frittatas with vanilla oat milk and Frosted Flakes French toast. It’s delicious. I make the best tacos for Taco Tuesdays, like soft tacos and hard tacos with rice and sour cream. I can make anything Italian. We love to do penne pasta and a Bolognese. I also make the best sandwiches. My husband loves them. I’ll get a baguette and very thin honey-maple turkey and lettuce, cheddar cheese, mayo and mustard. My sandwiches are epic.
I really can’t wait for the kids to grow up a little bit and to start cooking for them. I want to make their cute school lunches with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches shaped like hearts and different animal shapes. I am so excited for their cute lunch boxes, I can’t wait for them to be a little older so I can make them cute snacks.
How has becoming a parent, and welcoming two new babies in the last year, changed what you do in the kitchen and how much time you’re able to spend in there?
Phoenix just started solids a few months ago, so I’ve been blending and pureeing different vegetables and fruits. I’ve learned a lot about the importance of going to the farmer’s market and getting everything really fresh and trying to avoid pesticides. I just get really nervous about all that, so I’ve been doing a lot of research and looking into everything that has to do with food. I’m learning so much from all the moms on TikTok and Instagram.
Your show Cooking With Paris was a cult hit. Can the fans expect a comeback any time soon?
That was just the perfect show to do during the pandemic. The whole world was shut down, the television studios were shut down. But when things started to get back to normal, I decided to not continue it. My schedule is crazy busy, and it was just too time consuming. It took, like, a week to shoot each episode. With everything that’s happening in my life, I just don’t have time to do that. But I am planning more short cooking collabs. I painted my entire kitchen all baby pink, and I’ve been inviting over my friends and different influencers to just do fun cooking videos together. That’s just easier with my schedule — I can have like, six creators come over in one day and make a bunch of videos all at one time. So yeah, you’ll be seeing more Cooking With Paris content for sure, just bite-sized.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
