The setting for this advertisement – in the kitchen and dining areas of a small restaurant – provides the perfect context for the musical style used, where the diners and restaurant staff act as a chorus to support Limb’s singing chef. The catchy melody (from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta) and Limb’s infectious cheer have you humming along by the end of the advertisement. As was common with many domestic products of the time, Nestlé's famous packaged soups are marketed on the advantages that they can be prepared within minutes, are an economical option, and are nutritious and delicious!

Entertainer Bobby Limb was a famous face and voice in Australia through the 1960s and 1970s, but here we see a youthful and cheeky Limb before the height of his fame. As the singing chef he is engaging and his facial expressions are especially endearing. The Singing Chef shows off Limb’s ability as a comic performer and a singer. Limb was one of Australia’s youngest band leaders and worked with a number of Australian jazz musicians before hosting the television show, ‘Bobby Limb’s Sound of Music’.

The Singing Chef synopsis

In this mostly black-and-white cinema advertisement for Nestlé's packaged soups, entertainer Bobby Limb is a singing chef, impressing a table of guests for dinner.

The Singing Chef curator's notes

This is a charming advertisement that features a fresh-faced Bobby Limb singing and cooking his way through a two-minute musical extravaganza for packaged soup. The main advertisement is in black-and-white, although the product shot at the end is in colour. Nestlé's MILO advertisements, Family Album (1948) and The Joy of Living (1948), are also curated on this site.

The release print of this advertisement is part of the Harry Davidson collection held at the National Film and Sound Archive. Davidson was a film lover who built an invaluable collection of films from the 1930s until his death in the 1980s. Early cinema history especially has benefited from private collectors such as Davidson, who have cared for and preserved films that may otherwise not have survived.

Notes by Poppy De Souza