36: The Catastrophic Rise & Fall of Uncle Ted's Iconic Cambodian Refugee Donut Shops

hey besties. before dunkin donuts or krispy kreme we had cambodian donut shops run by refugees. *AFTER* this video check out donut king on hulu or disney + .

You can actually buy Angelique Hansels cronuts online here: https://dominiqueanselonline.com/products/4pc-cronut%C2%AE-gift-box?variant=34733912031395

And this is the TK donuts shop in San Diego that I reference: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tk-donuts-san-diegohey besties. before dunkin donuts or krispy kreme we had cambodian donut shops run by refugees. *AFTER* this video check out donut king on hulu or disney + .

You can actually buy Angelique Hansels cronuts online here: https://dominiqueanselonline.com/products/4pc-cronut%C2%AE-gift-box?variant=34733912031395

And this is the TK donuts shop in San Diego that I reference: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tk-donuts-san-diego

Transcript

Hey guys :) It's Reese and just hold on to your hats. Grip tightly onto them, because today is one of my just honest to God favorite favorite stories about how Cambodian refugees absolutely dominate the donut industry in California specifically and it's just the craziest story ever. A good documentary to watch *after this video* is donut King on Disney Plus or Hulu it it's such a riot it's so fun and so I was talking to my friend she's a Vietnamese descent and like most of her family is here because of like the nail industry right because you're able to sponsor like family members and stuff and so like that just got me down this Rabbit Hole of industries that like immigrants and refugees have absolutely dominated out of sheer force and willpower so thank you for coming in and wanting to learn about Donuts :) So, on Reese Grey Analyzes we look at creations and experiences in art media music and even video games to explore exactly why we think the way we think question what we believe and learn something new!!! So I'll start you guys from the beginning :) so in the 1970s there was this genocide of educated people in Cambodia so like professors and teachers were being executed so they wouldn't rise to beat out this military dictatorship that that was Rising so it was like a anti-intellectualism movement basically and so this was slightly after the Vietnamese War and a lot of these same people aided the US in the Vietnamese War so there was a feeling that a lot was owed to these people and so by the Red Cross they were offered like which country do you want to go to and a lot of them picked uh the USA and there's this specific um camp in San Diego where a lot of these Cambodians end up staying and at one of these camps is someone named Ted Ngoy who is the Donut King as we know it he was formerly a soldier during the Cambodian War so he can never return or he will be killed and he made it to San Diego with his family and he was able to make it out of the camp because there was a church that sponsored him and his family and gave him a place to stay at the church and even the pastor allowed him and his family to shower at his home and he worked as a janitor at the church and of course that's not enough money so he found another job as a janitor at a hotel and another job at a gas station as a gas station attendant as well and so Ted Ted Noy he's working all of these jobs almost 24 hours to just like help his family right and at his third job at the gas station he smells this incredible smell cuz he was there for his morning shift and there is a doughnut shop selling like fresh donuts and so he went over to go get one and when he tasted the doughnut he said that it was really familiar tasting he said it was similar to a Cambodian snack called Nom Kong and so he was like oh man like I--- I want to just make these and sell these how do you think it like I can learn to make these from you at this random doughnut shop that was next to the gas station and she's all like well like why don't you just go to like the major doughnut chain here in California and just get a job there and learn there and that at the time was Winchells Winchells was this huge franchise it was the 70s times it was that time like Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme because right now in the west coast there wasn't Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme yet that was East Coast thing and so Winchell's was the California donut spot and so he gets a job over there and learns how to run a doughnut shop he learns how to bake and fry and he says even learn payroll and all of that and then he is able to save up enough money to open his own shop and when Ted Ngoy started training too he started training under Winchell to learn how to make these Donuts when he was 33 so he was no like spring chicken you know but he totally learned a new language learned a new trade and just killed it absolutely killed it and what's so sweet is that to this day Mr Winchell and Ted Ngoy are still on speaking terms like they still talk like they were like competitors under capitalism but you know like that's fine and just the story gets even wilder even though right now it is very sweet so when Ted Ngoy came at his camp at Camp Pendleton in San Diego there was 50,000 people at that camp a lot more people who needed to be sponsored right and so when he's able to open his shop he's able to sponsor more Cambodian families he's able to offer them accommodation at his home and he's able to offer them employment at his donut shop and a lot of people in the documentary too they say like his house was always full the fridge was always full people were always like willing to work hard like they saved people from their nightmare like everyone's very very thankful to the opportunities that that they were given at that time so he really is like seems like he's just referred to as uncle Ted he's just this guardian angel for a lot of Cambodians to get sponsored and throughout the time where he had his shops he sponsored 100 families not even 100 people 100 families and so his first shop that he opened right because it was so sweet too cuz he was talking about a lot of business has to do with like networking and stuff and he wasn't good at that he wasn't a people person and he said it was because a lot of people like they didn't even know a Asian person or have an Asian friend but there's this other woman in the Cambodian Community who like spoke good English everyone loved her and she went by Christy and so they go into business together and the first shop that TedNgoy opens is called Christy's donuts and later Ted and Christy go on to get married and so they open their first shop in the 70s and then by the 80s they start franchising this out because they have people work at the original Christy's donuts and then they're able to with a franchise fee for $40,000 have their own shop and then of course Ted Ngoy gets residuals off of this at his height per month he was making $100,000 per month with all of his doughnut shops and then at its peak he had a total of 60 shops around California and just immense success crazy success and so this like community-driven Venture of having people who were from this community and build up these shops these shops themselves they built up like a cult following there was this one shop and Dunkin Donuts how dare they they would move in their shops like across the street from these like Cambodian donut places just you know those I don't know if you guys have them in your state but they're everywhere in California it's like a doughnut shop and it's just called donut or like donut coffee or like donut coffee burger like literally like we have them like you drive down 10 minutes and there's one like you see like three or four it just driving in One Direction on the same street it's crazy so there are just so so so many and people in those communities with those shops that's been there for like 40 year years people are loyal to them and in the documentary they show this original doughnut shop from like one of Ted Ngoy's donut shops and when the Dunkin Donuts moved in across the street that to this day is their busiest day yet because the community came in to show their support for their Town's favorite doughnut shop and it just I I love that I love that stick it to them and so by the mid 90s actually 80% of independently owned donut shops were owned by Cambodian individuals so in California so that is just insane demand is booming for Ted in such a way that he just like couldn't keep up with it and he had to start his own packaging company as well to keep prices low and to be able to ship off um packaging super duper quick so now not only is he making like 20 million a year just off of residuals from his shops but he also has this packing company that his shops you know buy his his goods from it's insane so he's doing very well for himself now wow and so now comes now comes the the fall of ted's Empire okay and with a lot of of Falls from Glory where do they start they start in Las Vegas Nevada so for the first time in the '90s he takes a a trip to Las Vegas and he loves it a wee bit too much he he turned into a a Gambling Man he writes $1 million checks at the Mirage casino and loses it that same day and he just becomes addicted to gambling he in the documentary he is very forthright in this and talks about how he would sneak away from his family he'll say he's picking up deposits and he'll literally fly to Vegas from like the bay area which is like an hour flight but like 8 hour drive or like 3 hour drive from San Diego and he would like sneak away from his family to go gamble and one time the family knows where he goes cuz he has a favorite casino which apparently is the Mirage I do like the Mirage but anyway he is like ducking behind slot machines and stuff because he sees his family coming to look for him and it's just so so tragic and he ends up getting in way too deep gambling that without his wife's knowledge he starts to tell these stores like hey like give me an advance of $50,000 if you don't get it back then you own the shop right cuz so $50,000 was their original franchise fee to have stake in ownership to to have a franchise that is owned by Ted Ngoy right and so a lot of these times he keeps losing the money and losing the money and he's losing these donut shops by forging his wife's signature as well so he goes from like 60 shops 50 30 this happens in the span of a year because he keeps borrowing money from these shops and losing it gambling and so they end up losing everything very very quickly they lose their huge home they lose their doughnut shops and they just they have nothing and so what Ted and Christie decide to do is that they go home they go back to Cambodia and they start a little bus business venture there in real estate and it doesn't really work out they go back to the United States Christi's still with Ted during all of this adversity and then she finds out after staying with him after all of this after the fraud after the gambling addiction and Ted has an affair and Christy finds out and that is the straw that breaks the camel's back and she decides to leave him just that's it she was just like I I just can't believe it and so many betrayals one after another and so that is the Fall From Grace from the donut King so the lesson is do not go to Vegas so Ted Ngoy basically he loses everything he's homeless basically on the streets of Vegas but do not be worried because we have the donut Queen actually who had is innovated like hell through this donut craze because you know what people people get bored of regular little donuts and then you know the east coast is known for their doughnut craze they are the innovators the East Coast knows what's going on and the West Coast follows so the East Coast they started in 2019 there was a chef who came up with the Cronut and Meili to who owned one of Ted Ngoy's donut shops like in the beginning so Meili to is the daughter of one of the original owners of one of tedos shops and she figures out she figures out her own personal Cronut recipe and like so SoCal like you're in San Diego and then you have like a foodie scene and one day someone like comes in and then like pokes his head in the door and he's like are you really selling like like a cronut like you're selling cronuts here and she's like yeah and then he leaves and so she's like rude okay like not even going to buy anything he was a writer and he wrote an article that the cronut is now in California and it's the only place you can get it and it causes this influx of business everyone wants a cronut everyone goes to Meili's donut shop and so not only is this the iconic shop that people loved so much that they protested the Dunkin Donuts moving in across the street but now it's the same shot with the freaking Cronut guys the guy who came up with with the Cronut recipe in New York so his name was Angelique steel right he sent a cease and desist to her to stop making cronuts but she's like stop making cronuts it's my recipe I didn't steal anything that's yours like I you don't own the word Cronut either like that's that's mine and you have yours it's all fine it's all okay and to this day she sells her cronuts which look really good like I have seen cronuts near where I live and like I'm like eh but honestly like hers look like really flaky and and delicious since she's the originator of it you know I'm sure that she has the recipe down like so well so I I need to go there I actually do I actually do need to go there and this is the extremely juicy juicy juicy story of the donut King his fall and then the rise of the donut Queen via Cronut now some things that were iffy you know you you got to be a little bit Shady sometimes and K you blame them but they would use you know labor from their children that's free you know after school little 10-year-old comes by and it's it's time to get get in the bakery it's time to work the cash the cashier area it's it's time for you to get to work so that's how a lot of them uh made profits and they wanted to make it a family business you know so their kids take over the shops later and then the documentary also goes into this a little bit too because you know they these parents they they did amazing for their kids they were able to grow up and get an education and they don't want to work in a bakery anymore so that's kind of the issue that they're having now because these shops are fizzling out um because of a a new generation coming who doesn't want to work those shops anymore and so are these Shops going out of business sad yes but it's also really awesome that these parents were able to really dig their heels in so hard work so hard so their kids were able to have stable careers in which that they could want so it it's sad and you know they did excellent as parents as well with this this new generational trend of all of these um shops shutting down I hope you guys enjoyed this this was one of my favorite juiciest documentaries that I've ever watched it was really fun and just there was so much to learn in that documentary and I hope you guys really enjoyed this like always let me know if there's something weird you guys want me to research or weird experience that I can like build into a video that would be so awesome let me know any Trends because I'm a hag and I don't know any Trends and as always I love you guys thanks for spending your time with me today these are always very fun okay love you bye