So, I just did it. Through doughnuts, many Cambodians stepped out of isolation and into the American mainstream. I never will be able to pay back. And I thought, How could that be? Hes passed away now so I cant talk to him about it, but it was a learning experience for me about my parents relationship with politics. Ted became known as the Donut King - or Uncle Ted, because of the many Cambodian immigrants he'd sponsored. buy a ticket 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? [9], Ngoy is the subject of the 2020 documentary film The Donut King. His party did poorly in the 1993 and 1998 parliamentary elections, but Prime Minister Hun Sen made him an advisor on commerce and agriculture. And then we started communicating, bringing back and forth the messages," Ted says. People love her and shes beautiful. A daughter owns a 1950s-style hamburger restaurant in Orange County. But he was more than well-off; he was respected. Hes friends with Dana Rohrabacher. He had sold what few shops remained. He woke her up and she was about to scream for help, when she realised it was her classmate. He suggested that Ted hang out in the back and to put Christy in the front. With the help of his brother-in-law, he was promoted to major and appointed military attache at the countrys embassy in Thailand. This 2020s documentary film-related article is a stub. Former staff writer Vera Castaneda covered arts, entertainment, lifestyle and issues related to Orange County for TimesOC, a community newspaper owned by the Los Angeles Times. In the 1980s and '90s, when Dunkin' Donuts tried to establish itself on the West Coast, his frosted, deep-fried empire sent the company packing. A day before he left, his eldest son said if you have $3.2 million you can buy it. He wrapped the note around a stone, and threw it down. His story has been told through different angles in a couple of articles. and 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. At a news conference, he dissolved his party and accused the government of corruption. One night, he saw Suganthini on her balcony, and decided it was time to make his move. DK's Donuts I was addicted to a feeling, and money was simply the needle that delivered the toxic dose," he writes in his autobiography, also called The Donut King. ", "I was like, 'What on earth makes this Cambodian? [3] Ngoy worked at various jobs, including as a travel agent and tour guide, before joining the military in 1970. He is wealthy again. When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975, they knew they couldn't go home. He shaved his head and spent three months barefoot in Thailand, coming back emaciated and a changed man - or so he thought. "Well, it is because I've fallen in love with you," Ted replied. 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. I always thought of it as a Plan B to come back and now, it has become the Plan A and more," Tao says. 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. Once a paragon in the community, refugees now avoided him for fear of being asked for a loan. He began placing bets with Cambodian bookies on football and basketball games. At 16, she had no friends, could not talk to boys and was forbidden to leave home alone. He enjoyed meeting the younger generation of doughnut makers, who are innovating and inventing new flavours. He had burned a lot of bridges and at the time his children hardly spoke to him. He took two additional jobs, working almost 24 hours per day. One night in a pouring rain, Ngoy scaled a coconut tree beside the wall surrounding her home. Read about our approach to external linking. I think there's nothing wrong for them to lie to the embassy because everybody needs a chance to survive. He moved from church to church, until an elderly Cambodian woman allowed him to live on the covered porch of her mobile home. While he was recovering in hospital, Suganthini also made an attempt on her life. This documentary tells Ted Ngoy's story that is one of fate, love, survival, hard knocks, and redemption. Gu first needed to find Ted Ngoy but she had no idea how to do it. He taught them the names of the doughnuts: old fashioned, jelly-filled, glazed. A cinematographer who has worked on commercials and movies with Rory Kennedy, Werner Herzog and Stacy Peralta, she stumbled onto the subject after her nanny brought her some "Cambodian donuts. Ngoy was one. I instantly found the Realtor, the listing agent and arranged to go and have Ted walk through his old house. ', "If you could turn the clock around, I would do that. 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 United States alone is home to more than 25,000 donut shops and they produce more than 10 billion donuts each year. At the peak of his success, Ted owned something like 65 donut stores many of them named Christy's and was bringing in about $100,000 per month. And that's what he did. He built a donut empire and $20 million in wealth, but his fortune built on donuts would crumble and he would lose it all. "After cry, go back gambling," he told one interviewer. He also figured that as a prominent politician, he would be forced to control his gambling habit. [1], In 2013, he was living in Phnom Penh working in real estate. The couple had flash cars, bought a million-dollar mansion with a pool and an elevator, and went on holidays abroad. Ngoy told Suganthini that he didnt love her. He is nicknamed the "Donut King. In 1975, Ngoy fled the Khmer Rouge with his wife and three . "Using money to provide for others is a feeling as powerful as any drug," he later wrote. When he couldn't pay them back because he had gambled the money away, Ted signed away his ownership stake in those stores. Ted joined the Republican Party, held fundraisers for George H.W. The first few times he and Christy visited, on early family holidays, everything went well: they watched a magic show, they saw Elvis perform. 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 stranger who crept into her room more than 35 years ago is a stranger again. Suganthini smuggled him food at night, and after many days she said she loved him too. Director Alice Gu makes her film debut with The Donut King, following the life of Ted Ngoy. He went on to marry Suganthini Khoeun, the daughter of a high-ranking government official. Eventually he and Christy were left with just one doughnut shop, which they decided to sell. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Then he opened his first independent shop in La Habra, eventually covering the rest of O.C. The family were housed in a hastily erected refugee camp on a marine training base, Camp Pendleton. He was bleeding out and her parents were like, 'Oh, God. Over the last few years, Tao has rebranded the shop with a colorful, hot pink logo and experimented in the kitchen, producing eye-catching, Instagram-friendly creations and original flavors. Will Orange County's Fledgling Clean Power Agency Survive? 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. "Cambodian people owe them a lot.". Within a decade, he had become a multimillionaire with a lakeside mansion . By 2005, after a failed political career in Cambodia, Ngoy was penniless and living on the porch of a fellow Parkcrest Christian Church parishioner's mobile home. The Donut King was directed by Alice Gu, and is her first feature film. [5], The film received 69/100 on Metacritic, receiving "generally favorable reviews. While working a second job at a gas station, Ngoy took notice of a busy local donut shop and inquired of its operators about . Ngoy built a vast donut shop empire across California and it started in 1970s Orange County. Las Vegas was the new thing, he said, besides making money and making doughnuts,. While working a second job at a gas station, Ngoy took notice of a busy local doughnut shop and inquired of its operators about learning the business. How to get the best eggs in town without leaving your yard. Because of the Ngoys, a Cambodian refugees first American job was often in a doughnut shop. If there's anything she wants people who watch The Donut King to know, it's that this seemingly simple treat has a deeper cultural resonance. At 35, Ngoy had already climbed out of poverty and into privilege once. He had met Richard Nixon, the former president, and Presidents Reagan and George HW Bush. Few foods are as universally adored as fried dough. Christy's parents said they would let Ted live if he told Christy that he was a dog who had romanced other girls and had never loved her. He was ready to be taken by a new passion. The whole community banded together and they all agreed to sell him out of donuts every morning by 9 a.m. When he lost he would lash out, smashing doors, breaking furniture and frightening the children. Mag's Donuts He hosted Dan Quayle and Pete Wilson at his house. Bun Tek Ngoy touched down at Camp Pendleton on a military plane in May of 1975 with his wife and three young children. Then, after falling out with a powerful political rival he feared for his life and fled to the US. Ngoy showed them baking and bookkeeping. It actually made national, if not international, news about the kindness of these people in Orange County. Two days after Gu's out-of-the-blue call to DK's Donuts, she was talking to Ngoy in Cambodia. He has converted to Christianity, he said, and prays often, asking God for help. Ngoy wrote to her. Suganthini and her mother heard the music. When there was an overrun of pink doughnut boxes Ted bought them cut-price, and the pink boxes became his trademark. He trained them and handed over the keys. What new information did you learn in the making of the film?There was a lot that was new to me. And she was heavily chaperoned. Doughnuts offered an escape from years of welfare dependency. And it was actually a donut that I refused at first from Mayly Tao, the Donut Princess. They went to Europe twice. I told him that he has a story to tell. I called her when I found out and asked if she knew about Ford and Brown. When the couple recovered, her parents finally allowed them to marry. Then when dinner is ready, she knocks on the door and I open the door to have dinner.". Ted became their first South East Asian trainee. In 1967, his mother sent him to study in Phnom Penh, the capital. The Cambodians worked hard and because the whole family pitched in, they did not have to pay out any wages. Ngoy bought his first doughnut shop from a couple who was retiring. It also reminds us that several U.S. presidents welcomed a flood of refugees with open arms. The gambling is sad, the saddest part of my life.". [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. The next day, he flew back to Los Angeles. "When Alice called me, she described something that I have always wanted to tell but never thought that it would get picked up anywhere," Tao says. It was hurtful. Upon his return to Orange County, Ngoy began gambling harder than ever stating "Monks cannot help me, Buddha cannot help me. What drew you to Teds story at the start?Finding out about his story, its fascinating a guy who comes here penniless and becomes a Donut King. We had an instant connection and it felt like we were meant to be doing this story together. He lost all the doughnuts, said James Dok, director of the United Cambodian Community, a social service agency in Long Beach. In our very first phone call, he asked if I was American and I told him that I was Chinese American. Yes, you read that right. And I feel so much hurt. Interviews can sometimes feel like a therapy session. "I did not have time to take care of business, so business was going down. When he lost big, he would sign the stores over to them. "It's impossible to explain that money had nothing to do with it. "Ted, again, is Mr. Nine Lives. 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? But the name was misleading. On hearing the music float across the quiet city, Suganthini's mother remarked that whoever was playing must be in love. I say, Ted, who are you? I really dont know.. Ted became known as the Donut King - or Uncle Ted,. I dont think you dare come to my room, she responded. Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Until then, she was kept sheltered. "The more you chase, the more it's gone," he says in a new documentary about his rise and fall, called The Donut King. I said, 'Because it's incredible, for one. In less than two years, while working on other jobs and projects, Gu directed and shot the 94-minute documentary. Ted became deeply religious. Peace Lutheran Church Ted, Christy and their two kids fled to Thailand. The doughnut king landed at LAX with $50 in his pocket. While Ted was immersed in Cambodian politics, Christy flew to the US for the birth of a grandchild. Nearly every independent donut shop in every Southern California mini-mall hides a story and many of them start with an unlikely impresario, a Cambodian refugee named Ted Ngoy. Hard work. In 1993 Ted and Christy moved back to Cambodia. Ted Ngoy By 1985, 10 years after arriving in the US as refugees, Ted and Christy were millionaires, owning around 60 doughnut shops. Your tax-deductible financial support keeps our stories free to read, instead of hidden behind paywalls. Ted Ngoy has become a stranger even to himself. [5], Ngoy was hesitant to return to California for the film; he was estranged from his children and former friends. Theres a hustle to it, and director Alice Gu captures it in her debut documentary The Donut King.. The donut business isnt easy. They had a vacation home in Big Bear and a time share in Acapulco. 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. Ted Ngoy (born Bun Tek Ngoy; 1942) is a Cambodian American entrepreneur and former owner of a chain of doughnut shops in California. Over the years, Ted and Christy sponsored more than 100 families, often hosting them before setting them up with homes, loans, and doughnut shops. It took longer than 40 years. 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. I go to borrow. Not many professional gamblers are bipolar women, but Cat Hulbert was one of the best - and she delighted in winning money from men. If you walk into a doughnut shop in California, the chances are it's owned by a Cambodian family. This is an incredible story of how he helped people. He had spent all his money on electioneering and on a failed attempt to introduce a new type of hybridised rice, which he believed would improve yields. For a year and a half, I struggled with how I was going to get access to that Mission Viejo mansion. But within weeks he was back on a plane to Vegas. 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