Huge numbers of Cambodian refugees were arriving in California. Ngoy would open more shops and lease them to fellow refugees. But it was really the immigrant story. That really broke the ice for us. Once, I said I would die if something happened to him, Christy said of her ex-husband. Word spread. Refugees who had sought his advice now avoided him, fearing he would ask for a loan. He has found his way to be wealthy again. I could have made a special piece just on the history of donuts. Ted and Suganthini sold everything they had and arrived in California on one of the first refugee flights, with their three children, an adopted nephew and two nieces. You just have to see the opportunity and go for it. Those are the wise words of Ted Ngoy. Her parents wanted nothing to do with him. Ted Ngoy in The Donut King documentary. The couple had flash cars, bought a million-dollar mansion with a pool and an elevator, and went on holidays abroad. "The note said, 'I appreciate you blowing the flute. LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network. Theres so much competition. Most importantly, the trip allowed him to mend relations with Christy, who has now remarried, and with their grown-up children. It was on the market. When he was unable to pay back his debt, he would sign over his store to them. He had met Richard Nixon, the former president, and Presidents Reagan and George HW Bush. I shared love, my heart. Ted's parents and sisters fled across the border to Thailand, and Ted got a call from the US embassy there asking if he would sponsor them to live in the US. Mismanagement, Sloppy Hiring Practices, Lack Of Transparency. "Some of them were cousins, uncles, nieces," says Ted. He wrote a note, telling her that he lived in the building opposite and was the flute player. Those are the sounds of a man in love, her mother said. When he lost big, he would sign the stores over to them. When the couple recovered, her parents finally allowed them to marry. Ngoy is Cambodian and he was in Phnom Penh when it fell. Ted liked Cadillacs; Christy preferred Mercedes-Benz convertibles. Christy was in the front and made a lot of inroads with the community and built a lot of bridges. Your Guide To Everything Boozy You Can Order, A Los Angeles Family Seeks Answers And Accountability After Black Mom Dies In Childbirth. "I did not have time to take care of business, so business was going down. In the early 1990s, it was reported that California had 2,400 Cambodian-owned doughnut shops. And then we opened second store in Fullerton, and when they opened, I also train people and my wage, Christi, also . The film details how Ngoy fled Cambodia with his family during the Vietnam War and later went on to build a donut shop empire, only to lose it all because of a gambling addiction. I think thats the American way the power of connections and people. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot. And of the 5,000 independent doughnut shops in California today, around 80% are still Cambodian, she says. Every weekday, you'll get fresh, community-driven stories that catch you up with our independent local news. There were some hurt relationships. Theres also the moment where Ted revisits his former home in Mission Viejo. Then I went to America, Ngoy said, and created the doughnut world.. "That's why I want to tell the world, 'Do not gamble.' That's because of a refugee who built up an empire, and became known as the Donut King, only to lose it all. Chuong Lee, who has run DK's Donuts since 1988, is officially retired although she occasionally helps out at the shop. The families who followed Ngoys lead learned to run businesses and picked up English. He moved from church to church, until an elderly Cambodian woman allowed him to live on the covered porch of her mobile home. It smelled delicious and when he first tasted one it reminded him of something from home - a fried pastry, also circular, called nom kong. "Many times I try to commit suicide because I hate myself. Ted Ngoy, who was known as the doughnut king, lives in Phnom Penh. "Everybody's happy to see me now, because I changed from the bad guy to the good guy.". Despite the villa's armed security guards and guard dogs, one rainy night Ted climbed up a coconut tree and over the barbed wire and made his way in through a bathroom window. Bun Tek Ngoy touched down at Camp Pendleton on a military plane in May of 1975 with his wife and three young children. After setting up a sweet shop of his own, he helped fellow . This is going to happen.'". Okay, you guys can' It was a whole Romeo and Juliet story," Gu says. Ted Ngoy had served in the Cambodian army as a major fighting communists that were trying to take over that country's government in the 1970s. Then he pulled a knife. Tao did everything in her power to help Gu. But the name was misleading. At 16, she had no friends, could not talk to boys and was forbidden to leave home alone. Then, he lost it all. Just knowing that my great uncle Ted and the story of my parents and hearing Alice say, 'I want to really dig deep on a Cambodian donut shop,' I was like, 'Wow, this is real. Streaming now on PBS. Designers Andrew Hem and Charlie Le were awarded a SWSW Film special jury recognition for their poster design of The Donut King in 2020. I never loved you.' . Ted Ngoy was born in Sisophon, Cambodia. Oklahoma-style smash burgers and Georgian dumplings make for some excellent cheap bites in Glendale, Husband and wife Felix Agyei and Hazel Rojas combine food from their heritages, creating a marriage of West African and Filipino cooking. No days off. One night, during his shift at a gas station, the scent of freshly baked goods wafted toward him. She would discover big losses, and they would argue, sending their children running to their rooms. She ended up threatening to starve herself, saying, "If you won't let me be with him, I'm not going to eat.". Naturally he agreed, and set his sisters up with doughnut shops. It was love at first bite. The ubiquity and low overhead of these Cambodian mom-and-pop donut shops helped drive Dunkin' Donuts out of California in the late '90s. All three were taken to the police station but they were too scared to mention the cash in the boot. He wrote a book called The Donut: History, Recipes, and Lore from Boston to Berlin and he gave really fascinating insights into donut culture, history and our relationship to donuts in America. 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"It's impossible to explain that money had nothing to do with it. The Ngoys decided to keep uniformity amongst their shops, naming subsequent acquisitions Christy's. He hired his wife and nephew. , some of the dough (see what we did there?) With Chuong Pek Lee, Susan Lim, Ted Ngoy, Daewon Song. He is nicknamed the "Donut King." He is nicknamed the "Donut King." He wanted to be with her, but he had no one else to manage the shop. "'You want to tell my story? How did those scenes end up happening?I asked him to travel to California again. At the height of his success in the US he had been an ardent Republican, and an enthusiastic fundraiser for the party. "It's a crazy story, but it's true," says Ted, now 78. His family didn't want to see him, and nobody offered him work, not even baking doughnuts. Gu first needed to find Ted Ngoy but she had no idea how to do it. He cut his chest sliding under barbed wire. His sponsor told him people will have their prejudices but they mean well. Christy has remarried and lives in Lake Forest, not far from their three adult children, who all live in Orange County. Ngoy became a trainee and took over a Winchell's in Newport Beach. In 1990, after disappearing for another disastrous trip to Las Vegas, he flew to Washington, D.C., and joined a Buddhist monastery. Within a decade, he had become a multimillionaire with a lakeside mansion . the I thought it was so profound that this was the very same community that just a couple of decades earlier were making fun of somebody who worked at the counter and had an accent. His mother raised him in a rural village near Cambodias border with Thailand. "[1] He says his Christian faith ultimately helped him abandon the habit. The Top 5 newsletter catches you up with LAs top 5 stories in just 3 minutes. He turned down a job as a security guard because it required standing for eight hours. At the weekend the oldest children, Chet and Savy, then nine and eight, helped out by pouring coffee, packing doughnuts and folding boxes. Ngoy and his family enjoyed the fruits of their labor and at one point moved into a 7,000-square-foot mansion in Mission Viejo. He began to disappear off to Las Vegas for days, losing $5,000, $7,000 a game, and neglecting his family and his doughnut empire. With the help of his brother-in-law, he was promoted to major and appointed military attache at the countrys embassy in Thailand. "[1] In 1977, the Ngoys took a trip to Las Vegas where Ted saw Elvis Presley. He did not fare well in either the 1993 or 1998 parliamentary elections, but his friend, Prime Minister Hun Sen, made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture. The Donut King comes out Friday, Oct. 30, online, and when you His party did poorly in the 1993 and 1998 parliamentary elections, but Prime Minister Hun Sen made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture. I thought I would just get an exterior scene for context. He became Ted. "Before I'd never gambled, but like all the compulsive gamblers in the world, first you throw in a couple of bucks, $10, $20. While Ted was immersed in Cambodian politics, Christy flew to the US for the birth of a grandchild. He had no way of making a living until a Chinese contact from better days asked him to help out with a real estate deal. He went on to marry Suganthini Khoeun, the daughter of a high-ranking government official. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Key grant funding to help O.C. You will end up destroying the whole family and no more relationship with the world, just finished. Suganthini became the smiling face behind the counter, even though she hardly spoke any English. Eventually he and Christy were left with just one doughnut shop, which they decided to sell. "Growing up, when you look on the screen, there's not a lot of Asian representation. Filmmaker Alice Gu (left) poses with Mayly Tao outside DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. And that's what he did. "She was so beautiful," he remembers. "I came back to L.A. and I didn't know that I was going to create this crazy explosion in the business. "He was a little uneasy," Gu says. Soldiers and dogs guarded the mansion. , the Every time I met them I said, 'Sorry son, sorry my daughter, sorry Christy. The following month, US President Gerald Ford insisted the US should welcome 130,000 refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia, telling any critics: "We're a country built by immigrants from all areas of the world, and we've always been a very humanitarian nation.". He says he hid in her room for 45 days until he was discovered. On Sundays, he attends Parkcrest Christian Church in Long Beach. [4], Despite the wealth he had amassed and his importance within his community, Ngoy felt dissatisfied, remarking that he had "No political life, no religious life, just work, work. In return, he played their tables and lost thousands of dollars. His story begins in the early 1970s when Ngoy was a commander in the Royal Cambodian Army, training soldiers in Thailand. Upon his return to Orange County, Ngoy began gambling harder than ever stating "Monks cannot help me, Buddha cannot help me. Ngoy showed them baking and bookkeeping. He had $50,000 riding on many Sundays. Suganthinis parents kept her locked in her room for days. "Cambodian people owe them a lot.". The Ngoys went to Las Vegas for the first time in 1977. On Sundays he would go to the church where her son was the pastor and join in Bible studies. This is my own speculation, but it seemed like he had come to some peace with his dad and childhood. So, I just did it. Ngoy's gambling had progressed from the card tables to placing bets on sports games with Cambodian bookies. When he completed his three-month training, Winchell's gave him a shop to run on Balboa Pier, a tourist spot on the Newport peninsula not far from Tustin. Buddha cannot help me.. A woman from his church lets him sleep in the screened porch outside her mobile home, which he has fashioned into a makeshift bedroom. Suganthinis father ran out from hiding and called an ambulance. The son of a peddler had no chance with such a girl, no right even to think of loving her. [10] Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends. Even in gambling. The Donut King is a 2020 American documentary film which tells the life story of California donut shop owner Ted Ngoy. In the early 1970s, Cambodia was in the midst of a brutal civil war that displaced two million people, more than a quarter of the country's population. Boozy Dole Whips. Ted wrote one day. [8], After a particularly devastating gambling loss in 1990, Ngoy flew to Washington, D.C. and joined a Buddhist monastery where he spent a month meditating. He began placing bets with Cambodian bookies on football and basketball games. Ngoys wife hated his gambling. "It is the purest form of risk-taking, the distilled anxiety and thrill behind every business decision and bold declaration of love," he writes in his autobiography. It was really wonderful. She divorced him and didnt return to Cambodia. But with great riches come great temptations. Doughnuts offered an escape from years of welfare dependency. L.A. became the country's epicenter of donut culture when Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian immigrant, arrived in California during the 1970s. What is Ted up to in Cambodia nowadays?Ted is doing well. ", "I was like, 'What on earth makes this Cambodian? ", Alice Gu's documentary, The Donut King, is available in the US now in theatres and online and will be coming to the UK in 2021, Listen to Ted Ngoy on Outlook: How the Donut King lost his crown (produced by Maryam Maruf), Ted Ngoy's autobiography is called The Donut King: the rags to riches story of a poor immigrant that changed the world. Long hours. The documentary goes back and forth between Ngoy and the present-day lives of second- and third-generation donut shop kids or what Gu refers to as Donut Generation 2.0. It was small amounts first but he was soon blowing bigger figures and he couldn't seem to stop. ", He communicates with them almost every day. After cry, go back gambling." None of the people Ngoy helped get started lent him a hand, he said: I trained them. Beautiful views aren't the only thing drawing Angelenos to the region. By 1976, Ted had saved up enough money to buy his own shop, which he named Christy's. I did not have time to expand. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. So he named his own political party the Free Development Republican Party. In the end, filming the documentary was a healing experience for Ted. That's a disaster," he says. Everybody cry," he said. He tasted his first donut at a Tustin gas station, trained as a baker in a La Mirada Winchells and ran his own Winchells store in the Balboa Peninsula. Cambodia was poor and under-developed after years of war. Ted Ngoy (born Bun Tek Ngoy; 1942) is a Cambodian American entrepreneur and former owner of a chain of doughnut shops in California. [7][3], Ngoy's fortunes improved dramatically, such that by the mid-1980s Ngoy had amassed millions of dollars through his expanding doughnut shop empire, reported as 50 locations throughout California. But he admits he was also aware that conquering Suganthini's heart held out the promise of a better life. He enjoyed meeting the younger generation of doughnut makers, who are innovating and inventing new flavours. "They forgive me fully. This caused tension in the Ngoy household, being the center of many arguments between Ngoy and his wife. After earning a communications degree at UC San Diego, Tao worked for a while at a news station but wasn't enthused about that career path. He hired his wife and nephew. He built a donut empire and $20 million in wealth, but his fortune built on donuts would crumble and he would lose it all. COVID origins? I cry. He says to me, Alice, making money its so easy. I wanted to tell this story in a way that was inspirational and optimistic. "a short-lived comeback in Sacramento in 2002," the Massachusetts-based company didn't return to the Golden State As word of Ted's success spread, Cambodian immigrants started seeking him out when they arrived in Southern California. Christys Doughnuts in La Habra never did great business. She thought it might have been a tall tale, "But when I was in Cambodia, [Ted] lifted his shirt and I saw the puncture wounds," Gu adds. His story has been told through different angles in a couple of articles. , to name a few outlets), but Alice Gu is the first to put it on film. After cry, go back gambling.. He was fortunate to escape with his wife, two kids and some relatives, arriving in California where he and his family were housed in a. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. I said, 'Because it's incredible, for one. I gave her my spiel, and she said, 'Well, you've called the right person. I cant take credit for it, but I do feel like in the making of this film and having some of these people face feelings that they hadnt confronted in many years, it was very healing. But one night, he had an idea. Over the years, Ted and Christy sponsored more than 100 families, often hosting them before setting them up with homes, loans, and doughnut shops. We believe when reliable local reporting is widely available, the entire community benefits. They made a blood pact, promising to be forever faithful. They have social media and know how to work it to innovate their parents old donut shops with a worldwide following. Ngoy believes he is suffering Gods punishment for having betrayed the blood vow he made as a young man under the moonlight in Phnom Penh. You see some of these families and their stores in The Donut King He said that we didnt have room for these refugees here. and And then we started communicating, bringing back and forth the messages," Ted says. 50? Then he had his next great idea. Christy would search for him in the casinos, the children in tow. He was born Bun Tek Ngoy. All night long Ted would watch people buying coffee and doughnuts, and he realised it was a good business. Channy also wholesales doughnuts to other minimarts. 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