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If you are a son or a daughter
of an immigrant family who runs a small business,
you can definitely identify with
spending a lot of time
in the shop.
Oh, it's just hard to wake up at four.
Everybody else is asleep in the world.
My parents had strong work ethic.
It was seven days a week, 365 days out of the year,
no days off.
All your donuts are ready.
My dad woke me up 5:00 a.m.
every Saturday morning, to come in and help him.
It's hard labor. It's physical, and no breaks.
I was working since I was 10.
-We have the next generation helping here.
We don't just have kids. We have future employees.
You did it, thank you.
Growing up with my parents, helping them out.
This is the only thing I know.
When I was younger,
I kind of always thought everyone owned donut shops
'cause my parents owned donut shops.
No matter how much donuts we make,
it's just all gone, all the time.
I went to my uncle's house when I was in fifth grade,
he pulled out this newspaper scrap.
When I found out about Ted, I was like,
"Oh, actually, this is what our family does for business."
-Uncle Ted has a very interesting reputation
in our family.
I don't know much about Uncle Ted.
I've only met him once.
I don't know much about him.
I-I used to see him a lot when I was a kid.
What I heard about him
was that he had a lot of money, had a lot of shops.
He established a path for Cambodian refugees
to actually have an opportunity in America.
I love America.
I'm so proud that I live in America.
I have my freedom. I can do whatever I want.
I'm not the only successful Cambodian-owned donut shop.
There are many, many out there,
because Uncle Ted brought us here.
And they are all hard-working people.
It really is about tryin' to understand
where you've come from.
Ted Ngoy shaped an entire ethnic community.
He's a legend and...
he's the king of donuts.
In most of America, there's an average
of about one donut shop for every 30,000 people.
In LA, there's one donut shop for every 7,000 people.
Donuts are-- are everywhere here.
Seems like there's one in every strip mall,
all originated with Ted Ngoy.
I mean, 5,000 independent donut shops
in California today...
90% owned by Cambodians.
Customer favorite.
Time to make the donuts.
Mm, donuts.
Donuts. Go nuts.
Dunkin' Donuts found it so hard
to break into the LA market that in the late '90s,
they gave up.
The Cambodians have that market on lock.
This is an important story.
This is an exciting story.
A very new one to tell. Everybody knows it.
America's Donut King.
Ted started working in a gas station.
One day, he smelled this,
this great fragrance,
and he asked his coworker what it was.
And his coworker said, "Oh, that's a donut shop."
I remember, it was a slow night
about midnight, and there was no traffic.
I run real fast... come to this window right here.
I say, "Lady, I would like to buy some donut."
She said, "OK, I'll sell you a dozen donuts."
I fall in love with donut,
from that moment that I have a bite.
Donuts remind me of a cake called
"Nom Kong" in Cambodia.
Donut tastes like a little bit of your childhood...
when you're eating it and experiencing it.
This nostalgic feeling,
it just sticks with you throughout your adulthood.
-Very tasty!
He saw that the doughnuts were delicious,
of course, but he also saw something else,
that it was the middle of the night
and this donut shop was doing a brisk business.
-So I ask, "Lady, if I can save up to $3,000,
do you think I can open a donut shop like this?"
And she said, "No! Don't open your own donut shop,
just go to learn from Winchell's."
Our reputation for quality, service,
and cleanliness began here.
This is our first Winchell's Donut House.
-Well, it's been long time, sir. -It's good to see you.
Yes. Good to see you. -Oh, oh,
very good to see you. Wow. -You're lookin' good.
-I'm looking good? -You eat a lot of donuts, huh?
- A lot of donuts...
I still love eating donuts.
-Good, good, good -Yeah.
-What kind of donuts do you want?
-Well... always like my favorite one is glazed donut.
Glazed donut should be OK.
So beautiful!
And I need one small cup of coffee.
Mmm.
You trained me in La Mirada.
La Mirada store out front.
The headquarters,
you remember? - Yeah.
After the first week in training,
I knew he was gonna be good,
'cause he listened to me, accepted everything.
And he was very aggressive and very interested.
And the donut business is not easy.
-It's been 44 year now.
-Yeah. -I remember that I was
only 33-33 years old. 33.
Now, I'm 77.
Seventy-seven? You're still a kid.
- Still a kid to compare you, 91!
-Yeah.
In 1975, I feel that Winchell's training program
will give me the opportunity to become somebody.
Winchell's great place to work,
to grow, and to park.
When I started,
they asked me, "Ted,
what did you do in Cambodia?"
I said, "I was a major in the army."
"Why you here for?"
"Because of the war."
If I stayed, they would killed me."
For years, Cambodia lived on the edge
of the Indochina War.
Now, suddenly, it is in it.
When I see all these old tanks,
I remember the war.
Phnom Penh is a totally chaotic,
every day, every minute,
there's gunfire,
there's a rocket bomb.
We lived in hell.
They're getting so close.
Sometime, we were sleeping,
we heard the bombing, everybody say,
"Come down, come down!"
In Cambodia, the Communist forces there
are the Khmer Rouge,
and their goal is to overthrow the government.
-My brother-in-law,
he was a general in the army.
He gave Ted a position.
My job is to take care of the payroll,
take over the training program.
We need to train soldiers
to go back and fight against the communists.
They assigned him to go to Thailand.
So, we followed him, me and my two kids.
In Cambodia, enemy forces fought their way
to within 10 miles
of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh,
and US B-52 bombers and helicopter gunships
were called in to aid the Cambodians.
One result of the fighting
has been to create a lot more Cambodian refugees.
More than one million people have fled Phnom Penh.
Government welfare workers admit
the new surge is due mostly to American bombing.
Congress has said, "Enough of the bombing,"
and the president, angry and disappointed,
has promised to obey the law.
The Khmer Rouge
just keep bombing
almost every night.
I told my parents,
"I live in Thailand...
Why don't you come and live with us?"
But they're older, so they don't want to come.
On the 15th of April 1975,
I was in Phnom Penh
to collect the payroll.
We were surrounded by Khmer Rouge.
Every day,
we know we are closer to fall,
but we do not know when.
Everybody want to get out,
but couldn't get out.
All civilian airline stopped flying already.
The only chance I can get out from Phnom Penh
is through the military airplane.
So, suddenly I received a call from American pilot.
He said, "Ted,
do you want to go back to see your family?"
My father-in-law said, "Son,
you must leave. Now."
When he sent me to the airport, he knew
Cambodia is falling.
"Please take care of my daughter."
See, that was still fresh in my mind.
And I waved for him,
and he waved and he left.
The rocket... shelling... everywhere...
so I had to wait to see where the rocket fall.
The captain said, "Ted, are you ready? Let's go!"
After five years of fighting,
and 250,000 deaths, the war in Cambodia is over.
What was left of Cambodia's non-communist government
surrendered unconditionally today
to the Khmer Rouge insurgents.
-My father, we lost him... I don't know where he is.
We don't hear anything from him.
From the air, of the city of Phnom Penh
seemed almost deserted.
There was some traffic, but very little of it.
We were able to see a car here and there.
There were also tales of executions,
none of them firsthand reports.
They closed door and they killed people by million.
I was in Bangkok, happy we were family,
but we know it's end of it.
We can never go back to the country.
But then, where we go?
1975, I was, uh,
stationed with the 11th Marines,
and I was a warrant officer at the time.
And April 30th, we had gotten the word
that refugees would be coming to, uh, Camp Pendleton.
We all wondered where.
There were tons of refugees.
I mean, you have thousands and thousands of people
trying to flee for their lives.
The world's looking at you for one.
What were you going to do?
Gerald Ford realized that this was a crisis.
They did serve us, they supported us.
We have a moral obligation, if anything,
to bring these people in.
But a lot of people,
including the governor of California,
are deeply concerned
that these refugees are being brought here.
When we have a million people
out of work... uh, when we have uh, our own people
taxed to the hilt,
uh, I'm just very slow to just uh, open the floodgates
and say, "Come on in"
unless we provide a way to put Americans to work.
I understand the attitude of some.
We have serious economic problems.
But we're a country built by immigrants.
And despite our economic problems,
I'm convinced that the vast majority of Americans today
want these people to have another opportunity
to escape the probability of death.
And therefore, I applaud those who feel that way.
And once the commanding general
gives an order, oh, you follow it,
whether you like it or not. And that's what we did.
-They had 24 hours to set up the first camp.
Digging trenches, getting coats, getting blankets,
getting cots, getting food, whatever they had to have.
-Eighty-two of my Marines and myself,
we helped construct tent camp number five, up in Talega.
We had over 50,000 people
through this space.
I can go to any country,
but I choose to America because I love America.
-"I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America..."
-We don't know much about America,
only some music, you know, we heard on the radio.
-Well, I like cowboy movie, you know?
The cowboys... the horse... fighting.
They are America's newest immigrants,
the first refugees, on their ways to
temporary shelter at Camp Pendleton.
It's a long flight,
but it's comfortable. It's OK.
I just pray to Buddha,
to bless my family
to start a new life.
When we got here, it was like,
early in the morning
like 2 or 3 in the morning.
It was so dark and so cold.
Oh, my god!
I was scared, really.
You feel like...
lost. You know?
You just left your home.
You left all your possessions.
Whatever you carried with you, that was it.
And come to Camp Pendleton,
and then be put in a tent on a hard cot.
And that's tough.
Eight of us went to US.
Me and my wife, my three children,
my nephew and my two cousin.
The first thing in my mind is
"How are we going to survive?"
There are still a lot of unanswered questions
about life in America.
Where will they settle eventually?
How will they live, raising their children
in a new and unfamiliar place?
But there really is no alternative.
The old familiar place is home no more.
-We sold all our belongings.
We make like $3,000,
that's all we had.
-It was very important
to help the refugees get settled,
and to make them feel safe.
Whatever was needed, people were willing to help,
and there were ads put in on the radio
and in the newspapers, and people answered.
There was a lot of entertainment going on.
Education classes to teach them English,
medical services.
-The kids could go out and play.
Uh, I-I mean, all night long, you could hear
their little voices chirpin' out there.
It warms your heart.
It was a new life. It was a beginning.
The road may seem long.
But I'm sure that you will find when you're diligent,
you will be happy.
And we will be proud to have you as citizens
of the United States. Thank you.
-We know our lives are safe, we're safe.
Food is a lot... better.
-Food...? No...
Mashed potato...
...macaroni...
...this and that...
I couldn't take it anymore...
-It was SOS, what we called,
you know, shit on the shingle.
You have your bread right there, you have meat,
and then you have this... gray matter poured over it.
-No, we don't like it.
Not to me... no!
We just eat to survive,
because we don't have anything else.
I stayed in the camp for one month.
We heard this family left camp, that family left camp...
And we wondered, "When will be our turn?"
The key to getting out of the refugee camp
is having an American sponsor
who promises at least temporary lodging.
Church groups and the Red Cross
are trying to find sponsors for the refugees.
Finally,
there's an announcement that a church
in Tustin will sponsor my family.
A sponsor needed to find a way
to house them, get them a job,
make sure that they got their kids
enrolled in the school, got transportation.
It's something like you would do for your own kids.
Peace Lutheran Church in Tustin sponsored us.
Pastor Dean Beaumont and his family
always come and take care of our daily living.
He's very, very gentle
and very kind.
-They put us in a church
temporarily, for a week.
They don't have shower, right?
So, our sponsor, every couple days,
he took all of us to his house and take a shower there.
I don't remember coming here.
I don't remember on the plane.
But I remember that clearly.
-God, we were so happy.
"Oh, we get to go shower!"
-Once in a while, they invite my children and myself
for barbecue and swimming at his pool.
-It was so happy. Oh, so nice.
I was a custodian at the church.
When I need something, I just come here
to use the broom and use supplies
to clean the church.
I asked Dean Beaumont, my sponsor,
I said, "I don't think I can raise my family on $500/month."
Then, he found me another job
as a gas station attendant
and also salesperson at a Builder's Emporium.
working almost 24 hours a day.
We managed to do it because
when you're poor, when you need something,
you always, uh... make it happen.
I went to school behind the church there.
I remember stealing kids' lunches.
-Me too.
I used to... during break time,
'cause my parents were poor and they didn't have money,
so they wouldn't send us any food.
So, I would go in all the lunches and take snacks,
Twinkies, and Ding Dongs, and eat them
because I was so happy. I was so hungry.
Like, "Oh my god, this is so yummy."
And then one day, I got caught.
-Uh-oh.
-And they took
me to the principal's office.
I was so embarrassed but, you know, we were hungry.
Everyone wants the same thing.
They want the peace of mind knowing they're safe,
knowing their children are safe,
being able to provide and put food on the table,
clothes on the back.
Always wanting more for your own
than that you had for yourself.
Cambodians were no different.
Sad part about it is, they lost their country.
That doesn't leave you.
So, for my family,
American dream is very, very important.
If you can achieve American dream,
you can achieve any project.
We know our future's going to be different
and we live in high hope.
-Wow!
The donut is an absolute
quintessential American food.
You know, the ability to pick out your own donut,
that's a great thing.
And you don't forget that very quickly.
-We're going to get a donut.
Humungous good.
We come here after the dentist.
-Right after the dentist. -After the dentist.
We come here every night to drink the best coffee
in the world.
And the best donuts too. -Yes.
I'm like the food porn curator.
Post it at a time where you like, kinda want donuts.
-I'm here for my chocolate-chocolate fix.
The average person eats
like three donuts a month.
-Take a look, very busy.
You have to do a lot of running,
a lot of exercise here, yes.
You have to be quick, quick, quick!
Thank you.
The doughnuts are universally loved
from all people.
Would you like anything else?
-That's why you can build a business from it.
-In 1955, when President Eisenhower
signed the Highway Act,
so you saw a proliferation of the building of highways
across America.
-People were going to work in their cars.
In California especially, yeah,
there wasn't a lot of public transportation
for people to take.
Urban sprawl had spread people out,
so they were really on the go a lot.
-And that created a demand for the portability of food.
And Winchell's and the donut shop chains
answered that call.
-Time to make the donuts.
There was a fractured donut landscape
in the US at this time.
So, Dunkin' Donuts had the Northeast on lock.
In California, it was really Winchell's.
Ooh, I can taste those cherries!
Go ahead, keep it up, Winchell's.
Two donuts and coffee;
breakfast for a good many Americans at that time.
So, we had Dunkin' Donut that was coming west.
So, what did Mr. Winchell do? Start expanding east.
The need for qualified people...
at all levels is increasing daily.
Whenever you see a tremendous expansion,
you need hard-working, energetic,
honest people that will work
in those donut shops.
-Winchell's hopes all of its employees
become long-timers.
Winchell's training program
lasts for three months.
I learned a new skill, to be a baker
and to run a donut shop.
After that, they give me a store
in Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach.
That day when they turned the key over to me...
just excited and... don't know how to describe.
From the time I came to Pendleton
until I get the key
to open the door for the Winchell's,
it took six months. Very fast.
-And so, Ted entering that program,
um, is kind of ironic
because in some ways, they-- they trained the enemy.
I am so encouraged, because I know
this my future.
I got the skill,
I know how to place order,
I know how to control the payroll.
So, I think I can do very well.
But, the first few months working,
people always make fun of me because my language.
-We don't speak any English.
When people talk,
we don't even understand, you know,
what they're saying.
They talk so fast.
In 1975, when Ted lands,
he lands in Orange County.
Most of the people he met had never before
laid eyes on a person from Cambodia.
Most people didn't know any Asians.
The manager said to me,
"Just like any place in America,
people have a strong prejudiced feeling."
-What's happening, hot stuff?
-"If they want, they don't like you. Don't worry...
let Christy take care of the front counter."
She's so friendlyand people love her!
His wife really built bridges in the community.
And over time, that donut shop, they had allowed them
to become part of the community in a big way.
-We were so happy, now we all work together.
We all helping each other.
They wanted a life for us.
-We go to school on the weekdays,
and go to work in the weekends.
We were like eight or nine years old,
selling donuts.
People would even ask, "How old are you?"
5 a.m., 6 a.m. pouring coffee,
packing doughnuts in pink boxes.
-I was the youngest one,
so I didn't usually have to do a heck of a lot
besides mess around.
Sometimes when it's slow, I'm bored,
and when I'm bored, I eat.
And one day, I ate eight doughnuts.
Like, oh my god, it was so bad,
but I love donuts. Like...
Till today, I love donuts.
At that time, the plain donut was 8¢,
the cake with decoration: 10¢,
glazed: 12¢ or 15¢,
a dozen donuts is $1.20.
-Now it's like $10 a dozen!
-$12. Even more. -I can't believe it.
This is so crazy expensive.
-But then, the payroll was cheap.
We were working hard,
we don't hire anybody, making good money in the family.
Asian people try to save a lot.
Everything is save, save, saving.
We put $5,000 down to buy a condo in Newport Beach.
I quit the job as custodian,
I quit a job as a Builder Emporium salesperson,
I quit the gas attendant.
When I got into donut business, I tried to save everything.
People uses the stir stick, right?
And then, we'd have a container, they'd toss it there.
So, we don't throw it away.
We'd wash it.
We don't have to order again.
It saves money.
Well, people don't put in their mouth, right?
-We appreciate the fact
that you're looking out for every penny in this business.
However, you've got to make sure
that you take care of our guests.
So,we would have a chit chat.
- So, I know...
I know it's not the right way to do.
I'm so sorry!
Ted is a shrewd businessman.
Another good example of that is a box.
Before we come to the picture,
American people always use a white box.
One day, I asked a salesman,
say, "How about we create some kind of pink box?"
Because pink box cost a lot less.
Even a dime or two dime, we can save a lot of money.
He did that,
he saved some on his bottom line,
and now, that's the iconic donut box that we all know.
-Good morning to you both!
Donuts, go nuts.
-Accept this little gooey-ooey present.
-Ah, can I get a selfie?
-Yea-- yeah. We need doughnuts.
I really want to buy a donut shop for myself,
instead of working for Winchell's,
because I don't want to work
for people for my whole life.
One customer, he bought a newspaper.
And he circled, "Ted, this one is a good buy."
$45,000!
I bought my first private owned donut shop,
Christy, in 1976.
I still running Winchell's.
So, we have to shop to run, and we work double harder.
Christy, she support me all the way.
-Sometime, I go help Ted baking
from like eight o'clock at night until
the next day.
And then, I take care of the counter there until
like 2, 3 in the afternoon until I come home.
I never had a day off. No.
Right after we got the donut shop,
Suganthini changed her name to "Christy".
My Chinese name called, Bun Tek.
So, I when I got a citizenship,
I changed my name to "Ted".
"Ted" and "Christy",
more "American".
Quite a... memory.
Time go fast...
-Time to make the donuts.
When I really start doing business,
I don't even know who is a "Dunkin'",
I just worry about my Christy's Donuts.
California was kind of the epic
car culture of the time,
and because there were so many commuters...
Dunkin' Donuts saw California as an opportunity.
And they wanted to make a big push into the state.
-Hi, Freddie.
-We forayed lightly into California.
We opened one or two
in Santa Clara, San Mateo...
...and San Francisco and then a couple in Orange County.
Donut is American breakfast.
While they driving, they bought a few donut with coffee.
So, there's such big demand.
Every day, I look at the business opportunity.
Fast food places, they always chose the prime locations,
close to the freeway,
it's perfect location for running a donut shop.
It really was this perfect time and place
for someone to set out to be a donut entrepreneur,
which is not like the likeliest thing to try to become.
But Ted saw the opportunity and he made it work.
By 1979,
I got about 25 donut shops.
I took over in 1988,
we build it up step-by-step.
Some of my customer
coming to DK, 30 years, and they still say,
"Miss Lee, you still look good."
"What do you eat?" I said "Donuts."
-And-- -How long have you
been coming here? -Oh, I would say 20,
I guess-- - 20 years?
-Yes, 20 years.
Do you remember when I was little?
-Yes. You and your brother?
- Yeah. -Yes.
What keeps you coming back here?
-It's great. I-I love-- I love the donuts.
They're good. Very good.
We're proud of this country,
it gives us a lot of opportunity.
When we first came in, we see
you can make money.
This is my favorite donut...
That's your favorite donut?
-Yeah. With bacon!
I've spent 35 years making donuts.
-He does really well.
He still has his touch.
My father worked every day for 25 years.
My parents did a good job providing for all of us.
We all went to school... and we all got married,
and pretty much, you know, living the American dream.
San Clemente is a really, really
great small community, um,
and there's lines out the door,
because they're so loyal to us,
and they want to come and supporting us.
A cinnamon roll.
There you go.
You would think by now
most people would know about Cambodia,
would know about the genocide,
would know about all the killing,
but there are a lot of customer, my customer,
they approach me, or I approach them,
talking about Cambodia.
They have no clue where, where it is.
This place used to be a school,
a primary school.
It's a school name Tuol Sleng, but then
they use as a prison center.
After I stay one year in California,
I have no news about, from my family.
When the Khmer Rouge took over, that's it.
All communication is closed.
We're in the dark,
everybody is in the dark.
-From now-Communist Cambodia,
there was little authenticated news today.
No Western news reports at all,
and the rest rumors and counter-rumors.
We're just thinking about my parents,
and Bun Chhay my cousin,
my sisters, but...
there's nothing we can do except
cry and pray for them.
Communications are emerging
that the communist conquerors may be planning
one of the most unusual political, social,
and economic revolutions in history.
That they may intend to seal off Cambodia
from the outside world and inside,
create a completely peasant society
with a virtual abandonment of the city.
When the Khmer Rouge took over the country,
at the beginning, we feel, "Oh!
No more war. We're so happy."
You can see the people.
They're already out on the streets,
waving and cheering as Khmer Rouge arrives.
But, they evacuate us to the village,
and then we'd start to scare.
There's no warning
and we're just following people,
and they're just marching lines and lines of people
out of the cities.
It's people everywhere.
Seven o'clock in the morning,
they come out all--
with all the gun and all this black clothing.
And they say, "Everyone from the house, get out!"
They said now
we're coming back in three days.
We were walking for a long time,
from early morning until evening.
Three days later, we realized that it's a trick.
Every city is dead.
There are no people, only a few soldiers.
It's just a dead city, and a dead country.
What is happening in Cambodia
is one of the strangest forced migrations in history.
Phnom Penh was a city of over two million people,
a population equal to that of Cleveland, Ohio.
And now it's empty.
We overheard that they killed
soldiers, the government officers,
all those students,
the high educated.
Before the war started,
my dad was the principal of Chinese school.
And so, my dad pretend that he was uneducated.
I only think the next hour, the next day,
because there's no hope at all.
The regime emptied Phnom Penh
of millions of people,
forcing them into rural labor camps,
and killing thousands.
They would make us work
from 5:00 to 5:00 every day.
Cambodia is like more than 100 degrees every day.
The sun is very, very hot.
It's very easy to get sick, and they don't care.
Whoever lazy, kill.
You're forced to go to work in a rice field.
They use those rice to buy weapon
instead of feeding their people.
The whole family,
we only have one little bowl of rice.
We have to share to nine people.
-It's not enough to go on the next day,
and work in the field.
People die right in front of me.
At night, I slept
with piles of dead bodies.
Hands and feet exposed, it smelled terrible.
At first, we all together,
but after like a year and a half, they split us.
They separated children from their family.
The family, we're all separate.
You don't even hear how are they doing.
Are they fine? Are they sick?
-I ran home a few time.
My father actually was threatened
by one of the leaders saying that,
"If I caught your daughter running home again,
then the family will get killed."
with a butcher knife...
-...threatened to kill me,
because he had to do it in front of them
to show them that he's not encouraging me to run home.
I thought he was serious, and so I never came home.
We were separated for five years.
I thought maybe they're dead.
They probably thought I was dead.
I was seven years old.
I was 11 years old.
I was 18 years old.
You would think after 30 years, you--
you don't remember, but you do.
That moment.
My family, it was tragic.
My older brother died, my younger brother died...
I am the only survivor.
Cambodia's militarism
was even too much
for its one-time ally and neighbor, Vietnam.
Saying Cambodia threatened its borders,
Vietnam helped overthrow Pol Pot.
Since January 7th, the Hanalei-backed government
has been in power.
Vietnamese troops are everywhere,
patrol the streets, run the city.
The soldier came to the area and say,
"Hey, you guy are free. Let's get out."
Oh, my God. We're gonna have our future now.
The government of Thailand, they send the people,
come pick us up.
They put us in a little camp, which is like 15,000 people
and we said, "Okay, we're not gonna die anymore."
We're like reborn.
Finally, I see light
because Cambodia, there's no light for all those years.
We live in dark.
When we got to the border of Thailand,
the Red Cross were there.
I don't know who these people, who they are.
But for me, we're just happy to see food.
My mom, my dad came and picked me up
from children's camp.
And I don't know how they found me,
but we just want to get out.
My parents just want to get out.
As the wife of the President
of the United States,
I can only say that I want to go home
and do all I can to mobilize our people
and see that we do all that we possibly can
to help the situation here.
Red Cross, say,
"So, we're willing to take you out.
Which country do you want to go?"
My dad say, "We don't want to go anywhere but America.
I want to take all my kid to America."
All over the world,
there are refugees
searching for freedom.
And whenever you think back on the history of our country,
you'll recognize that our nation is a nation of immigrants.
We're a nation of refugees.
When the plane take off,
I looked down there, I said, "Goodbye, Cambodia.
I will not come back to Cambodia again."
I do not know where's America?
All I know that my mom said that Uncle Ted
are waiting for us, and I asked her,
"Who's Uncle Ted?"
I receive a phone call
from the US Embassy in Bangkok.
My relationship with them is very good, very close,
because I was a major in the Army.
My family knew that I-I survived,
and they want me to sponsor them.
The embassy asked me, "Ted, can you sponsor them?"
I said, "Yeah, of course!"
They all come at the same time,
my both sister, my mother, my father,
children and everybody
come in-- in the same big group.
When we landed to LAX,
I was just looking everywhere. Taking in everything, you know.
Big, tall people, white people, blond hair, blue eyes,
I mean, they are all so tall and I'm like tiny little girl.
-When I see them walk out from the airport,
I couldn't recognize them
because they are so skinny, just...
you know, just skin and bone.
The house, the road, the freeway, cars,
you name it, everything just
different, different.
I mean, it's almost like a dream.
When we got there, I run around in the house
and I open the refrigerator.
It's like, "Oh my god, there's food."
And we couldn't stop eating. We're eating all his food.
Auntie Christy would have to buy more food,
constantly going grocery.
I remember she's saying, "God, you guys have been starving."
First day, I was in San Francisco.
I got a jacket, and I got a green card.
I don't know anything.
I did not know what's an a-a-a-an apple.
I don't know what's pennies. I did not have anything.
When I want to go to the store, I have no money to take the bus.
I have to walk.
I did not have money to buy a shoe.
But I-I feel like I'm a brand-new person.
Like, uh, I'm not gonna die.
I'm so happy.
I have my own freedom.
I'm willing to work hard for my life.
It's not too late. I was only 17 and a half.
-I sponsor more than 100 families.
When I first came to America,
I was willing to do anything.
Scrubbing toilets? Sure, I didn't mind.
I just needed to survive.
-I'm looking for a job...
anything... cleaning, or whatever...
We just get any job that we can get.
My dad, he's interesting to do
the donut business.
So my dad decided to look for Ted Ngoy
because everybody goes to him.
So, everybody come to me, they say
"Hey, let's go learn from Uncle Ted."
So I see opportunity here, you know,
because there's such big demand.
I had no idea what a donut was.
Ted knew donuts, so I went with him every day and learned.
Everybody come to learn.
And I pay for airfare, and I-I give them food.
I give them lodging.
I just want to see them successful.
-That very first night, I remember,
my dad did not rest at all.
I said, "Where are you going?"
He said, "Well, I'm gonna go with Uncle Ted to go to work."
Imagine going to any other country
where you don't know the culture, the language
or anything else. How do you survive?
My father gave them that opportunity.
We don't know nothing.
We don't know the culture,
we don't know the food,
but he allows me to get close to him,
to learn so quick.
Ning Yen, in 1980, he came to-to look for me.
And he said, "Uncle. I heard about your name,
and I want to be successful like you."
So I said, "I want to train you to be a baker."
If you know how to bake,
then you learn how to take care of payroll.
Then, you can run the whole store, you know.
If you don't know how to bake, forget it.
And he made a good donut
and he saved a lot of money.
Then, he want to open his own store.
I opened up Mag's Donuts in 1981.
More people demanding shops,
me and Christy, we talk among ourselves
then we created a leasing program.
One store, after overhead, it makes $7,000 net.
I lease out for $3,000,
I let the family make $4,000.
I only lease to Cambodian Americans.
I never imagined
that I'd be the owner of BC donuts.
After a few years, my parents save up
and they bought their own first donut shop.
They have to figure out a name.
And so, because we all love roses,
they named Rose Cafe.
My mom, my dad did help quite a bit of people
when they settled here.
They just give them an opportunity.
The first donut shop I work
was run by Ted Ngoy's sister, Rose Donut.
I knew less than 10 word of English.
"Hi, hello. Thank you. Goodbye.
Point it." That's all I know.
And I learned only the donut name,
but back in those times,
there's no-no-no more than 10 item.
It's only glazed sugar, chocolate, glaze twist,
sugar twist, soft chocolate twist,
bear claw, apple fritter, cinnamon roll. That's it.
I was always thinking about expanding,
expanding, expanding.
Never have time to relax.
You know, my full mind, every day, is thinking about
how to get more shops.
You help one family,
and they--they bring the relatives,
and then they open up more shops and more shops.
It spread like wildfire, you know,
so fast so fast!
-I remember 25 donut shops, but--
-Fifty-two.
-Oh, 52 donut shops? -Mm.
Mm. Wow!
I think I have 65 shops.
Ted becomes really surprisingly wealthy
off of these, these donut shops
that he leases to other Cambodians.
And, at one time, he estimates his wealth
at something like $20 million.
We're making good money, yeah,
because we lease all the donut shops, you know.
Some of 'em $3,000, $5,000 each.
-I enjoy making money here.
By 1985, I make about $100,000 net, every month.
They call me "Donut King."
I realized that we were pretty wealthy
when we moved to Mission Viejo.
It's an expensive house,
it cost me about $2 million dollars.
Wow! This is my master bedroom.
This is the bathroom.
Unbelievable.
It's so beautiful!
It was a great house.
Three stories.
It was amazing.
At school, I was referred to as
"the kid with the elevator."
How many people have an elevator in the house, right?
-Can you believe it?
Swimming pool next to the lake?
Own boat dock.
It's beautiful.
My dad loves people, and he loves entertaining.
We had parties all the time.
Every month, they invite us to the house,
make special food for us.
Every weekend, people come visit all the time,
non-stop.
I remember people coming in and out.
Different people living with us.
Strange people, and "Why are they here, Mom?"
And there was a Cambodian dance troupe
that was touring,
and they ran out of money.
I feel sorry for these kids,
so I invite everybody... 50 of them,
come to live in that home.
We had to feed them three meal,
breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
-You can imagine how chaotic it was.
You know, there's people everywhere.
-I told them, "Whatever you enjoy,
just do it!"
They jumped in the lake, they use my boat,
pool, everything...
-My parents definitely enjoyed the fruits of their labor.
We have fun because Christy and I love to travel.
Life was good.
We bought a Cadillac, but later,
Christy say, "How about change to the Mercedes?"
So we went to Europe,
to pick up Mercedes from Stuttgart, Germany
and we shipped to California.
And we both love it!
Wow!
What a memory.
-...has made millions of dollars from donuts.
Elizabeth Anderson has his story.
A man who didn't know the difference
between glazed or sprinkled,
Ning Yen now manufactures and distributes supplies
to donut shops throughout the Western states.
Two-thirds are owned by Cambodians.
In '80, there was only one distribution company.
It was very hard to get the credit to buy their product.
So, me and Ted's nephew, Bun Tao,
start a small, small distribution company.
Then, I started Santa Ana Packaging.
-He supplied all the ingredients and boxes
to Cambodian American donut owners.
Cambodian store open up,
like, 100 stores every month.
Growing that fast!
Growing up in California,
I knew in, I guess, kind of a-a naive way
that everybody who owned a Mom-and-Pop donut shop
was Asian.
Every day, we get a new account.
One of the struggles we had
was that we would train 'em,
and when they had enough money,
then they would go and compete with us.
Donuts have come full circle.
Winchell's dominated donut land with their West Coast '40s icon.
Now they're down to 300 stores
compared to 2,500 Cambodian shops.
They trained me and now they're falling one by one.
Of course, I feel-- I feel very sad,
but that's the way of life, you know.
The competition is good for the country.
It makes the country strong.
We have some individuals
that come over, get successful,
and then they help others really be successful.
And that's really what's happened, um,
with the Cambodians.
The donut shop is a good business
for them to start with,
because they all have kids.
Every day at 4 a.m.,
begins baking doughnuts.
To help, the entire family works.
We basically work every single day,
all of us, to be successful,
to live comfortable here in America.
There were an awful lot of Asian immigrants
that had started their own independent donut shops.
That was sobering for me.
Dunkin' was losing market share
to the Cambodian donut shop owners
which could operate much, much, uh, more efficiently,
much cheaper than the-- the big corporation could.
So they realized they just didn't have what it takes
to dominate in that market.
Dunkin' had to make
like $50,000 a month for survive.
A Cambodian donut shop, make $10,000, they can survive.
Dunkin' had really been
driven out of the state.
And it was the Cambodian donut shop owners,
the Mom-and-Pops, that had done it.
Anything Ted doing, very success.
My dad was very active in the Republican Party.
I have a lot of connections to the top,
they all know me.
When we come to America,
I said, you know, "I have to pay back."
Most important is helping, you know,
the country grow by doing business.
Imagine, a man with nothing, penniless...
come to the most powerful country in the world
and he build something.
This guy can change the market.
In 1991, President Bush Sr.
flew from the White House to California
to give me a Presidential Award
for achieving American Dream.
And I felt so proud.
In Cambodia, it's a different country...
only the rich people can become more rich,
but the poor, the chance to become rich
is very seldom, like impossible.
We are on the road on the way to Sisiphon.
I was born here in 1941.
I was born poor,
we lived in a wooden house
and the floor is right to the dirt.
So, sometimes we see some snakes and it's scary,
but that's how the poor people live.
My mother, she is Chinese.
She moved to Cambodia at 18 years old.
I was 5 years old when my father left
and my poor mother, she didn't speak any Khmer language.
So that make it very hard on her.
So living is very hard because
we were lacking of everything.
I always come here to pick up my mother.
My mother had to make a hard living.
His mother was smuggling goods.
At 9 a.m. when the train came,
she would go to the Thai border to get goods...
then bring the goods back to sell.
-She fell twice from the train, right?
But she stand up again, she do it again
because she had no choice.
I learned a lot from her,
the fight for survival.
She was working so hard,
she tried to save as much as she can.
Not for her, but for her children, the education.
-Starting from the age of seven, eight, or nine,
we always played together.
All of Battambang knew his name,
Ted Ngoy.
He was a quick learner, much smarter than I was.
My mother, I know she saved some money,
she asked me to leave home
because she wanted me to have a brighter future.
That is how I end up at Voltaire High School.
I must work and study hard.
I wanted to learn more things,
what the world can offer.
Suganthini was my classmate,
she sit in a couple rows in front of me.
To me, she was so beautiful and I fall in love.
-I-I didn't notice him, you know,
because there's so many guys...
and we don't talk to guys.
After rain, the whole city is so quiet.
I'd start blowing the flute...
My balcony, you know,
is right across the street from the big villa,
that's the villa of Christy.
You cannot see each other, but, you know,
when it's quiet, everything quiet,
you can hear it.
One day, she sent her maid from the villa
to send me a note saying,
"You blow a very nice flute."
We don't really speak,
we just write back and forth.
The last note I wrote to her said,
you know what... "How about, if some night,
I jump into your room?
She replied,
"What happens if you jump to the wrong room?"
If you jump into my mother's room?"
He's from a poor family so, I... It's just...
no way that my parents gonna let us
be together, you know?
Her father was a very high ranking official.
A family with a lot of influence in Cambodia.
Her father told him,
"Don't come into our house or I'll kill you."
It was two or three o'clock, after the rain.
I was up the roof,
I look at downstairs... "Wow."
It's dogs and police and security... everywhere.
I just sit there, quiet, for maybe five minutes.
I said, "Wow, should I go back home
or should I continue?"
It's so scary!
-The house was full of guards. -He had guts.
Lord I'll say, his balls are BIG!
I opened the door.
I cannot see her face,
I don't know if it's her... or her cousin...or sister...
I have no clue.
And then he come and grabbed my mouth, saying,
"Don't scream..."
I said, "Don't worry, don't worry...
I will hide under your bed."
I stayed there for 45 days!
I never would have dared to do that.
He really has no fear.
There's two reasons that I go after her.
Number one, she's so beautiful.
I definitely love her with all my heart.
But secondly, I found my life is hopeless.
So I think, "Well, maybe this is a chance..."
If I'm not succeed, if I get killed...
so, that's the end of my life.
But if I succeed,
then I get a beautiful woman as my wife
and I can climb up the ladder
and my life is not so difficult.
-I was so young, you know,
all I wanted to be is just with him.
We cut our fingers...
-We swear to each other to be together forever.
We swear that we do not betray each other.
In lifetime, maybe chance come to you
one or two times, that's it.
It won't happen daily.
There's a risk, but we have to have courage.
Just don't let the good chance, you know, slip away.
What we've done only prepares us
for what we're going to do.
Let me just say, good habits are hard to break.
I don't remember who took us there,
but it was amazing.
Lots of lights, and everything was so beautiful.
It's just completely different from where we live
and where we work.
Show and exciting.
Just like the first time I tasted a donut.
-My dad was amazed by Las Vegas.
First trip, we did not gamble anything,
just see the show and a couple nights we come home.
And the second time,
I just tried a little bit on the table.
We're enjoying the largest increase
in real, after tax personal income
since World War Two.
Just all started with blackjack.
It started small.
Bet $5... $10
He learned really fast.
I didn't know anything.
I never gambled, my family never gambled.
-He even taught me like,
"Hey, here's how you make money."
-Not everyone is fortunate enough
to know my techniques of how to make a lot of money.
-You win, you double down.
You lose, you double down again.
He get to know the pit boss and...
they give him free room, free food.
Then they start going...and going...
-The illusion has become real,
and the more real it becomes,
the more desperately they want it.
He'd just disappear...
somewhere in the casino, you know?
Until late at night.
Because I'm a high roller,
they gave me 20 tickets for Mike Tyson boxing.
I was there when he bite Evander Holyfield.
Yeah, I was there!
So funny!
He seemed so excited,
he doesn't sleep all day, all night.
Every time, they invite me as a VIP.
They give me a suite, a $2,000/night room.
-We're going to keep the mighty engine
of this nation revved up.
-He's--he's not tired.
When you win, you cannot sit still,
you cannot sleep.
Oh... it feels so good.
To each one of you I say,
"You ain't seen nothing yet."
We're gonna be truthful, right?
Yeah, he wasn't the perfect man.
He was just--
I don't know what was wrong with him.
In three words:
excitement, money, and greed.
When he wins, he's so happy,
and we're all so happy for him.
But when he lost a lot of money,
he's in a very bad mood.
Every month he earned tens of thousands.
Too much money.
-Too much money.
He was bored and had nothing to do.
So he would go to Las Vegas.
-It just got worse and worse and he always hide it from me.
And one time, we flew to Vegas...
and he dropped us off at Circus-Circus,
gave us like 20 bucks each, and we had a blast all day.
He got to gamble, and we got to play games.
And so, on the way home,
he went and bought some fish from the store.
Told my mom, "Oh, we had so much fun!
Look at all this fish that we got."
My grandma's like, "Hey, these fishes
feel like frozen."
-So Grandma knew. -Yeah.
-Who would go through all of that,
just to get to Vegas for seven hours?
But he did.
When I really want to gamble, I disappear.
I pretend to order supply or collect money,
but then I fly to Las Vegas.
-I go look for him many times.
Because she knows which casinos
are his favorite casinos to go to.
My mom would drop me off and run in there,
looking for him.
One time in The Mirage,
I saw them come in...
I went behind the slot machines.
I feel so much pain,
but I cannot show my face.
-We would finally find him,
drive him back home, and you know,
then he would cause a lot of trouble.
We'd fight.
He throw things, he'd break
the coffee table, glass and stuff, you know.
Kick the door and this, and that...
they'd all go hiding in their room.
It's a devil, it's a monster.
It's a monster in me.
-I always forgave him,
but then he never stopped.
He'd do it again... and again... and again.
It just draws you to go to the table.
You cannot say no.
You took my money, I want to chase my money back.
Badly!
If I lose $100, I want to get $200 or $300 back.
The more you chase, the more it's gone.
The bad and compulsive gamblers,
they do whatever it takes
to get money and go to the table.
-Ted said, "Okay, you want a store,
you gotta have $20,000 to deposit
in order for me to find a store for you.
People trust me at that time.
Whatever I say to them, of course they listened to me
because people need the shop.
And if I need $20,000...
they will give me $20,000.
You know to, to save for $10,000,
$20,000, it's not easy.
I work from 7 a.m. from to like 10 o'clock at night.
Every day I make a thousand shirt.
I make $10 a day.
I've worked so hard for three years
in order to save the $20,000 to deposit to Ted Ngoy.
I need money to gamble
because I have no more money.
The money I collect,
already gone.
So, I even borrow money from refinancing my house.
He cheat all these people.
You can say he help, but he want to get something back.
Not free at all,
that's why easy come, easy go.
Cambodian community is very tight knit, very small.
Everyone knew he was a gambler.
He would do anything for money.
He used to go to the donut shops and said,
"Let me borrow 50,000,
and I will pay you back next month.
If I don't, then you can have the donut shop."
So, when he doesn't pay back,
the donut shop belongs to them, now.
It doesn't belong to my dad or my mom anymore.
And my mom never knew this.
He forged my signature all the time,
even on my own account.
What can I do?
If I report it, he goes to jail, right?
I-I cannot do that.
I just have to live with it.
We lost all these donut shops
because of gambling.
And she didn't have control over that.
-One day, my parents said, uh,
"Hey, I need you to go to Bakersfield
or something tomorrow with us.
We're selling the last donut shop,
and it's in your name."
The next day, um,
we drove up there, met some Cambodian people,
and they paid us in cash, $85,000.
We jumped in the car and started driving home.
My son drove the car so fast...
-I was going maybe 60 or something.
-There's a police car in the front...
I told my son, "Don't ever pass that car."
Like, I'm going the speed limit.
So, you know, what's the big deal?
-He didn't listen, he's too young,
and he passed...
He pulled us over,
and they had their guns drawn at us.
We're like, "What the hell is going on?"
They handcuffed all three of us
and took us to the CHP substation,
and we're sitting there, you know, waiting, waiting.
I didn't make payment for the last six months.
So, they report that car is a stolen car.
-In the meantime, there's $85,000
in a Carl's Jr. brown paper bag in the back, in the trunk.
My parents, you know, were scared to say anything
because obviously, who walks around with $85,000 in cash?
-After everything is clear,
I said, "I have cash in the trunk."
-Five minutes later, someone calls back and says,
"Yeah, there's--there's no money in the trunk."
I remember seeing my mom just bust out in tears.
I really need that money, and it's gone.
He lost all his donut shops, he filed bankrupt.
The house on the lake went into foreclosure.
We own it for nine or ten years,
and they had to walk away from it, gave it all up.
-I miss this big house so much.
It's hard to believe
that he could allow that to happen
when he came to this country with nothing,
you know, absolutely nothing.
What a pity! I yelled at him in my heart.
I'm his cousin, so I can do this.
I told him, "You're foolish... "
"You were a millionaire, a mogul."
-My parents went back to Cambodia.
They were done.
A lot of thing come back to me.
Before the war,
Cambodia is a beautiful country,
everywhere is green...
It reminds me of my childhood,
the love story that I have with Christy,
and I thought I can change myself.
We've been together for so long
and we have a lot of things together.
So, if I leave him...
what--what I'm going to do, you know?
I've never been by myself.
My mom came to visit us.
And my dad had an affair.
I denied it, I said, "No..."
but let's be honest...
I do have a little affair.
Why do I hang out with him for so long, you know?
For... for what?
Finally, that's the last thing for me.
I went to court here to file divorce.
My dad was on his own.
We didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore.
Took care of our mom and, you know,
she's been through a lot. A lot.
I got cursed from God,
because I broken my agreement with her.
I lost everything.
Believe me... everything.
That's one chili, two chilies,
three chilies, four chilies.
-The more the better.
-Spicy.
Literally, no measurements, just eyeballing.
When you want measurement, I cannot do it.
Because that's how I cook.
Home cooking is the best cooking.
I'm super lucky to have my mom.
She'll like, get up if she's sleeping
or tired or whatever,
just to make sure that I'm well fed.
And I think that's like definitely her love language.
It's food.
-When you care someone, you--you always,
you know, want to make-- make sure, you know,
like good food for them. Take good care of them.
You know my mom, she's a certain type of way.
She's a fighter.
DK'S Donut, it was owned by Mayly's dad's parents.
They bought the store in 1981.
I took over 1988 with my ex-husband, Mayly's dad.
-Today, I'm 56,
and I still put 10 to 12 hour every day.
I get up, my knees hurt.
My hands hurt.
But I say, I have to stand up and go, you know.
The store like, need me.
I don't want my kid to work hard like me.
-My parents, they want to give us everything
that they didn't have.
We have a house, we have cars,
I got to go to a private Catholic school.
I want my kid to have good education
because I never been to any school at all.
I went to CST from 2008 to 2012.
And I came back, and my brother and my mom were like,
"Hey, we need some help at DK's, do you wanna come help us?"
And I thought DK's was always gonna be Plan B.
The old generation,
back in my time,
80% already retired.
They don't want to do it anymore.
I told my kid, I said, "Can you guys do it?
Please, Mom need to take off."
A lot of the old donut shops
with the original first-generation owners,
they're all run-down.
The signs are all yellow.
Just looks very old and outdated.
I'll do one of the glazed.
Yeah, I'll do the maple one
and then the chocolate one.
-That's it.
Before when I was younger,
I would always love doing this.
And then, I actually started working here,
and then I hated doing this.
But, um, it's not that bad.
It's just, you know, tedious.
Gives me like, you know, memories
like flashbacks and stuff like that when I was younger.
Because when I was five, me and my brother,
we would, used to like, make boxes together.
And so, I would try to race him.
That cheap labor force
that the Mom-and-Pops had in the 1970s, 1980s,
has kind of gone away.
-The donut business is not an easy business.
I was introduced to the shop very young.
I can remember my dad picking me up from school,
kindergarten, and bringing me here to come help him.
I honestly resented my parents for that.
Right now, I'm at junior college.
I think everyone's kind of rooting for me to take it over.
But of course, I kind of wanna do other things too.
So right now, I'm just trying to figure it out.
-In some ways the Cambodian donut shop owners
have been victims of their own success.
Their children are well educated.
They're professionals
and they don't want to be in the kitchen
baking donuts anymore.
So, it's been very hard for the Mom-and-Pops
to continue that legacy because of that.
-I do think there is more opportunity
in massing together and building a brand
than there is in lot of these independent operations.
Dunkin's moved in across the street,
literally right across the street from Roses,
and we were very worried.
This time, Dunkin'
is coming back swinging.
They're trying to establish a huge footprint,
which is a big difference from their first push in the 1980s.
-Dunkin Donuts just opened here,
there is a line all the way down the street.
They're opening tons and tons of locations
to try to establish that critical mass that's necessary
for a big chain to survive in California.
-We're gonna open up about 50 of those this year.
-And the question all the time is,
"When are you going to California?"
-And so far, this year, Dunkin's has surged
higher and higher.
-The consumer and the franchisees
are responding incredibly well to this.
-We've had competitors move in, but they weren't donut shops.
-There's a lot more Easterners now in California,
people who are addicted to Dunkin' coffee
and to the brand and to its donuts.
And it had that name,
it had the money.
And I was concerned, I was very concerned.
-Your Money Matters, and your favorite
Mom-and-Pop shop may be in danger--
A local donut shop owner
now fearing for the life of his business.
-We are seeing growth,
uh, hundreds of stores every year.
Some independents have closed down
based on our investigation,
but we're taking share from those independents.
The first day that they opened, actually...
that was our busiest day in history.
Still to this day.
We had customers wait in a long line
that wrapped around the building just to show us support.
-I passed Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donut to come here.
I was like, "Oh my goodness,"
like we needed more people that day.
It was crazy.
-These doughnuts are amazing. Seriously.
Usually we're busy for a couple hours
like, nonstop, but it was like the whole day.
Honestly, it makes me starts crying every time,
like, "Hoo."
One of the reasons that Mom-and-Pops
have been able to hang on
against this corporate onslaught from big brands
like Dunkin' Donuts is that the community
really has come out and supported them.
I've been coming to Roses
since 1995.
I prefer to come here than any other donut store.
There are no donuts better than Roses.
And we're still kicking it even with
like all these other corporations moving in--
I know Starbucks moved in and we're still around.
The Habit Grill moved in, we're still around.
Dunkin's moved in,
we're still around.
When we first came in,
we see a lot of opportunity.
Easy for us to just work hard, work hard...
make money, you know?
Now it's the 21st century,
I think the donut shop
has a lot of room to grow.
But you have to be willing to change.
-And so, I came back, and I worked.
And I started to think
that to really support my family,
there needed to be something innovative
to separate it from being
just this normal donut shop on the corner.
Nowadays you have to upgrade your store,
and your food.
I really wanted to rebrand DK's.
So I started off simply with the logo.
And then with the logo, it was like,
"Why don't we use social media?"
Glaze waterfall. Instagrammable donuts.
Thanks for all the hearts, guys.
And, "Oh, let's start creating...
all these new experience type things."
We have over 120 different kinds of donuts in the showcase.
-I love the donuts. It's so fresh.
You like one more?
-Yeah, this guy right here, he helped me.
Shelby!
-I just saw you on live and I was like...
-I needed donuts.
So that makes you really want a donut?
Yeah, it did. My mom wanted a cinnamon roll too.
-Oh, my god, your mom.
-Yeah. -Your mom was watching?
-Yeah.
Around 2013-ish, DK's just exploded.
And it happened overnight.
-Yeah.
-Thank you very much. -Thank you.
I am a police officer,
so we have to eat donuts.
You can tell.
Svelte.
We just took advantage of
the demand of this amazing donut-croissant pastry.
They've been queuing for hours under the rain,
all for a taste of the latest food craze
in New York: the cronut.
-The cronut?
-The cronut craze is sweeping New York City.
But there's only one place
to get your hands on this sweet, flaky croissant-doughnut hybrid:
Dominic Anzel's bakery in Manhattan.
Mayly, she told me,
"Okay, Mom, there's a guy from Thrillist.
Which is, I don't know who is Thrillist.
"Just pack six cronut. He will pick it up."
And I say, "Mayly, I haven't make money yet."
So, she said, "Mom, just make six and give it to him.
He will be here at 10 o'clock."
This guy is so rude, he not even say thank you.
I didn't get paid.
The next morning, he released the news:
"The cronut has arrived to Santa Monica."
The phone just would not stop ringing.
It's like, "Do you have this? Do you have this?
The cronut."
And I immediately called my family, and I'm like,
"Something's happening."
I was like, "I think I did something."
-I told Mayly, "Come on. Let's go for it.
We don't have much chance. We hit jackpot.
We have to work hard, okay? Don't go anywhere.
Don't take vacation. Just try it."
-And then, Dominic Anzel,
who was the originator of the cronut,
sent us a cease-and-desist letter.
And, you know, my mom and I were like,
"We didn't steal your recipe."
I make my own recipe cream,
and everybody like it.
And there's no teacher at all.
This is from my mind,
and nobody can copy that cream.
We have people coming from all over the world
just to have that cronut.
When I walk out from the DK, my feet is like flying.
When I sleep, my hand still squeezing the cream,
still feeling the cream.
After that, I'd really appreciate Mayly's,
"Oh, you did it right."
We need more donut boxes.
Alright.
I never intended to take over the business at all.
I got a college degree in marketing.
And that helped me build the business a little bit.
We try to make things pleasing to the eye
because people want to take pictures
and post it on their social media.
That's a unicorn donut,
fruity pebble,
Cookie Monster.
I'm always looking for inspiration
anywhere I can find it.
And I was just on my phone. Um, I saw the "poopy guy,"
smiling, looking into my eyes,
and I never thought in my wildest dream
that it would be the most popular donut to date.
There's all of this innovation
in the donut space right now where people are
really bringing this creativity
to the process of making donuts.
And people are responding.
It's like, hip to go get a donut.
Donut lover's paradise in downtown LA.
The second annual Donut Festival.
More than 3,000 tickets to this event presold.
Everyone has a favorite donut
and donut shop.
But at this festival,
bakers from the West Side to Whittier
bring their wares to you.
-I've eaten so much donut today, I'm gonna be fat.
Okay. Go get your box.
Who eats donuts?
Well, even the skinny girls eat donuts.
Even the bodybuilders eat donuts.
People who work at the city eat donuts.
Everybody eats donuts,
whether they'd like to admit it or not.
Go ahead.
-Any ingredient under the sun...
is on a donut today.
And so, you're seeing a whole new industry evolve
of gourmet doughnut shops throughout the United States.
If bacon chips and maple flavoring
is something the consumer wants,
we're never too arrogant not to borrow a great idea.
Donuts are my life.
It's not easy.
It's hard work.
The younger generation's taken over.
In the '80s, it just your old traditional doughnuts.
It's different now,
so you have to step up a few notches
in order to survive.
-Hey, what's up guys,
I'm here at DK's Donuts and Bakery
in San Monica, California.
And I have a very special guest.
This person is my Great-Uncle Ted.
He is a legend. Here he is.
-Hello.
He is here all the way from Cambodia.
Ted, this guy right here,
-opened up 70 donut shops
up and down southern and northern California.
And he gave Cambodian refugees a chance
to really make it in America.
His gambling, borrowing,
I can't be mad at him.
because of how much he helped me before.
-Yeah, I've always wanted to like,
meet him in real life.
Find out, like, what he looks like in person
and like, you know, try to ask him questions
about like, the truth behind all these stories
and stuff like that.
Others felt the same way.
Let bygones be bygones.
Two young men making the donuts...
Two young... 80 years old.
-This is the Chocolate Poop Emoji Donut.
-Ahh.
People just look at donuts
as just being a sweet treat.
To us, it's more than that.
To me, I'm very grateful for him.
Otherwise, a lot of refugees come here,
they-- they don't have a job,
they don't know what to do.
Uncle Ted brought us here,
and I don't think we would be owning donut shops.
And we may not even able to come out from Red Cross
in the camp in Thailand.
I feel like I have a nightmare.
It's not real at all.
The life that I have now is real,
and I never want to think about that nightmare.
I think about from now to the future.
I'm proud of myself that I did everything,
I built everything,
and I'm very success now.
-Chuong, can I have a glazed donut?
Well, I never have this...
so... I want to try it.
-I gotta take a little bit of what my parents did,
you know, that American dream, that hustle,
and really like make them proud
and see how far can we take this?
Everybody, try Donut King's donut!
-I mean, this is all, the footprint
of what my dad provided,
from first generation to-- second or third generation.
It all evolves, but...
it wouldn't be here without my dad.
-Donut time!
I think it's very important for me
to say "hi" to everybody
and--and say, "I'm sorry."
I have remorse for hurting them.
-When I took over the Rose Donut,
Mhm.
-I was working like 18 hours a day.
Yeah, I know. I know.
Right now, I feel very peaceful.
I want to be a regular, ordinary person.
I want to live humble, to live simple,
until I'm gone from this earth.
The United States has had
a long tradition of opening its doors to immigrants
from all countries.
We're a country built by immigrants
from all areas of the world.
Someone told me that there's
5,000 private donut shops,
but Cambodians own 95% of them.
So, I'm so proud of my countrymen.
In one way or another,
all of us are immigrants,
and the strength of America over the years
has been our diversity.
And the people that we're welcoming today
are individuals who can contribute significantly
to our society in the future.
They are people of talent. They are industrious.
They are individuals who want freedom.
And I believe they will make a contribution,
now and in the future, to a better America.