Hard work. On Sundays, he attends Parkcrest Christian Church in Long Beach. One night he asked the woman at the counter if saving $3,000 would be enough to buy a doughnut shop. Doughnut shops were easy to run. "What happens if I decide to jump into your room?" One night in a pouring rain, Ngoy scaled a coconut tree beside the wall surrounding her home. Yeah, My Family Doesn't Either, Soup Dumplings, Kimchi Burritos And More Fast, Cheap Eats In Glendale, At Masarap Cafe, West African and Filipino Cuisines Find Their Pairing, Drinking At Disneyland? 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. It led many voters to assume, incorrectly, that he was against Cambodia's royal family, and he didn't win a seat. He ran to the shop across the street where he bought a donut. Gu didn't know about any of that before she started developing this project. And she let me in to take a shower. In 1993 Ted and Christy moved back to Cambodia. When he lost big, he would sign the stores over to them. He has to start a new life.. "We were happy - until the gambling came to wreck my life. From the wall, he leaped onto the roof and crawled through an open window. ', "If you could turn the clock around, I would do that. Working all hours, Ted and Christy knew very little about what was happening back home in Cambodia, but what they heard was bad. COVID-19 has hit her store and most other shops hard. Ted Ngoy was reaping rewards of that success. Thank you for investing in your neighborhood. She ended up threatening to starve herself, saying, "If you won't let me be with him, I'm not going to eat.". His doughnut fortune was almost gone. 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. That is because I had a buttermilk bar about 30 seconds out of the fryer with fresh glaze on it. Ted wrote one day. So, I just did it. Ted began to look for more doughnut shops to buy and lease to fellow refugees. [4], Ngoy secured work as a janitor with Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin, California. This documentary tells Ted Ngoy's story that is one of fate, love, survival, hard knocks, and redemption. It was really wonderful. Ted resides in Cambodia where he splits his time between Phnom Pen and Kep, a province in Southern Cambodia that's famous for its crab fishing industry. He slept under the bed and hid when the maids came to clean. Ngoy and his wife became American citizens and were . Then he flew to a monastery in the Thai countryside. According to Tao, the servants caught on to Ted's presence after a few days but didn't say anything. Once again Suganthini was the friendly face welcoming customers, and when she became a US citizen she took the name Christy as her own. He says to me, Alice, making money its so easy. He was bleeding out and her parents were like, 'Oh, God. One of their sons is a financial consultant; another is a computer-networking technician. They saved money where they could, even washing and reusing coffee stirrers - until they were reprimanded by Winchell's. Chuong Lee, who has run DK's Donuts since 1988, is officially retired although she occasionally helps out at the shop. None of the people Ngoy helped get started lent him a hand, he said: I trained them. Ted Ngoy, his wife and family pick up the story and walk us through their unbelievable experience, flying to a . When time goes by it gets into your blood and you just cannot get it out," says Ted. He became Ted. Did working on this film change or contribute to your perspective of the American dream or immigrant stories?It seems like these days the American dream is harder and harder to attain. "That's why I want to tell the world, 'Do not gamble.' 50? The ubiquity and low overhead of these Cambodian mom-and-pop donut shops helped drive Dunkin' Donuts out of California in the late '90s. Perpetually in need of cash, he'd ask the people running his donut shops for loans. [1], That's why I want to tell the world, "Do not gamble." Hes friends with Dana Rohrabacher. Over the years, he says he sponsored more than 100 Cambodian families that wanted to come to the U.S. "[8] Giving it three-out-of-four stars, Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com called the The Donut King "a heartwarming albeit scattered documentary from director Alice Gu," and praised the film for "its balance of poppy visuals and detailed history. The United States alone is home to more than 25,000 donut shops and they produce more than 10 billion donuts each year. When I become big guy, then I cannot go gamble because people wont vote for you. Upon his return to Orange County, Ngoy began gambling harder than ever stating "Monks cannot help me, Buddha cannot help me. After setting up a sweet shop of his own, he helped fellow . , to name a few outlets), but Alice Gu is the first to put it on film. Mag's Donuts Ted did a lot of the baking at night, with his youngest son, Chris, collecting a light dusting of flour as he slept beside him in the kitchen. TED NGOY HAD an unrelenting obsession during his 1975 plane ride from Southeast Asia to Southern California. Then I went to America, Ngoy said, and created the doughnut world.. in San Clemente and, of course, DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. He lobbied his contacts in the Republican inner circle, including Senator John McCain, and MFN status was granted permanently in 1996. Ngoy asked to visit. And he said he saw her heart break before his very eyes. His party did poorly in the 1993 and 1998 parliamentary elections, but Prime Minister Hun Sen made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture. . Along with thousands of other Cambodian refugees, the Ngoys ended up at Camp Pendleton. He had no home and no money, and his country had been overrun by a gang of pitiless thugs. He remarried and had four more children - the youngest two are still at school. [2][3][4], The Donut King was directed by Alice Gu, and is her first feature film. "This story sheds light on refugees in a positive way, about what happens when they're given an opportunity," she says. "Cambodian people owe them a lot.". Now, he is in real estate development," Gu says. I instantly found the Realtor, the listing agent and arranged to go and have Ted walk through his old house. Los Angeles Times Baby Yoda cocktails. The Ngoys decided to keep uniformity amongst their shops, naming subsequent acquisitions Christy's. Also Jerry Brown, who weve seen in California as our beacon of hope and morality, in 1975 was actually the opposite. He was a fraud, he said. Tell us about your wife. Ted Ngoy stands in front of his first independent donut shop in La Habra, named after his wife Christy Ngoy. It smelled delicious and when he first tasted one it reminded him of something from home - a fried pastry, also circular, called nom kong. The Donut King is a 2020 American documentary film which tells the life story of California donut shop owner Ted Ngoy. "[7] In a positive review, Richard Whittaker with The Austin Chronicle said that "Gu does stellar work compiling and constructing Ngoys life story through interviews and archive and contemporary footage," and added "the animation sequences by Chapeau Studios and 1881 Animation that make the perfect drizzle of icing. Ted Ngoy: Yeah. I think there's nothing wrong for them to lie to the embassy because everybody needs a chance to survive. Eventually Cambodians owned so many doughnut shops in California that they dominated the market, pushing Winchell's into second place. I have to go to school.". He is nicknamed the "Donut King." He is nicknamed the "Donut King." Not many professional gamblers are bipolar women, but Cat Hulbert was one of the best - and she delighted in winning money from men. We had an instant connection and it felt like we were meant to be doing this story together. Her parents wanted nothing to do with him. It provided a path for refugees to settle and was a profitable business model. It was on the market. In 1985, he and Suganthini became U.S. citizens. He spends his evenings alone, reading the Bible. Then he opened his first independent shop in La Habra, eventually covering the rest of O.C. Ted Ngoy By 1985, 10 years after arriving in the US as refugees, Ted and Christy were millionaires, owning around 60 doughnut shops. But then one of Suganthini's servants appeared at his door with a reply. Her father was a high-ranking government official. Then he would return to Vegas in an attempt to win back what he had lost. Ngoy had become an example to other Cambodian immigrants, who began to follow his business model for their own entrepreneurial endeavors. She would forgive him when he promised to stop, and he would -- for a while. "[5] Upon looking into the matter, she learned about Ted Ngoy and became fascinated with the topic. She divorced him and didnt return to Cambodia. The doughnut king landed at LAX with $50 in his pocket. In 1967, his mother sent him to study in Phnom Penh, the capital. One involves reggae and another focuses on Puerto Rican musicians. Seasonal Halloween donuts at DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. She was hooked. He is working in real estate. 2023 BBC. I never loved you.' You just have to see the opportunity and go for it. Those are the wise words of Ted Ngoy. He became tired running doughnut shops on his own and decided to train and lease shops to his relatives and employ Cambodian refugees. What was surprising for me was watching Ted, a Republican, pictured with Pete Wilson at one point in the film since Wilson supported laws that hurt immigrants.Its wild. "If I need to shower, I knock on the door, 'Lady can I take a shower?' He built a donut empire and $20 million in wealth, but his fortune built on donuts would crumble and he would lose it all. I wanted to tell this story in a way that was inspirational and optimistic. Eventually, her parents discovered Ngoy and threw him out. Long hours. A map of Christys Donuts, Winchells and Dunkin Donuts across California during the height of Ted Ngoys entrepreneurship in the 1970s through the 1990s. They did business on a handshake, he said, and his tenants always paid. She thought Ted was joking, but he was serious. "They're a good company and I owe them gratitude," Ted says. And that's what he did. Maybe Its Time To Raise Backyard Chickens, Catch A Wave In The Booming South Bay Food Scene: Here Are 11 New Restaurants To Try, Don't Celebrate Thanksgiving? Gambling is a devil. This tastes like any other glazed donut,'" Gu says. "[1] He says his Christian faith ultimately helped him abandon the habit. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love my daily morning newsletter, How To LA. Las Vegas was the new thing, he said, besides making money and making doughnuts,. Instantly acquiring the rank of Major, Ted and his young family moved to Bangkok, and every month he travelled back to Cambodia to collect the wages for his soldiers. Ngoy built a vast donut shop empire across California and it started in 1970s Orange County. Ted was dismayed. The second time Ted came back to California, Chet took all this time off of work, took him to his timeshare in Oceanside and drove his dad around all over Southern California. The family were housed in a hastily erected refugee camp on a marine training base, Camp Pendleton. 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. The rise & fall of The Donut King. It took longer than 40 years. It actually made national, if not international, news about the kindness of these people in Orange County. He had gotten his first taste of that passion years earlier. "I became a very, very bad man and borrowed money here and there," he says. "This friendly voice picks up the phone, a young voice in that perfectly American accented English. Next to the petrol station there was a doughnut shop called DK Donuts. [5] Having grown up in Los Angeles, she was doubtful when her children's nanny made a reference to "Cambodian" donuts; she thought all donuts were simply "American. When he lost their money he would just sign over the shop to them - without telling Christy, whose signature he forged. He took a real estate class but said he couldnt retain the details. When Christy's parents eventually discovered the ruse, they were furious. When he lost he would lash out, smashing doors, breaking furniture and frightening the children. Ted had met Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., [Richard] Nixon. When he couldn't pay them back because he had gambled the money away, Ted signed away his ownership stake in those stores. Doughnut revenue put their children through college. , chronicles Ngoy's thrill-of-victory/agony-of-defeat rollercoaster ride through the American Dream immigration, capitalism, history, hubris, romance, addiction, family and food. I just first hurt my wife, Christy, my children and hurt many, many other people, too, because, when we needed money. "They forgive me fully. "Some of them were cousins, uncles, nieces," says Ted. Pay them back because he had no home and no money, and his country had overrun! 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